Star Trek: The NEW Generation
by Joshua The Evil Guy
Summary: The Enterprise E, on a routine mission encounters a strange phenomenon that deposits six strangers from an alternate Earth's past. Two just happen to be vampires. And one, a cute short and very strong blonde young woman.
1. Prologue

THE NEW GENERATION 

_Prologue:_

          The whole story is really quite involved.  But if you've found this particular little run of the mill Fanfiction story, then chances are pretty good that you already know most of it.  For now, just call me, the Narrator.  Not that I will be participating in the story, other than an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent voice above those in the story.  For just this story though.  Unless you'd like a sequel.

          But suffice it to this particular story, beginning with another one's ending.  The main characters?  Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer.  Dawn Summers, Buffy's little sister and the mystical force of energy called the Key.  Willow Rosenberg, extremely powerful bi-sexual witch.  Xander Harris, normal guy, construction worker, and everybody's best friend.  Except for the bad guys.  Angel, vampire with a soul seeking redemption.  Cordelia Chase, Angel's link to the forces guiding his redemption and Xander's former girlfriend.  Spike, or William the Bloody.  A former bad guy that got "neutered" and has fallen in love with Buffy.  The real bad guy, sort of, Glorificus.  Hell god/dess banished to Earth within the prison of a human body named Ben.  Glory wanted the Key to return home.  Well, by the beginning of our story…she's got it.

          The ritual stated quite clearly, "The Key will flow to the portal, the portal will open, and shall remain open until it stops flowing."  In everyone's mind, that meant that Dawn had to die.  Well, Buffy managed to stop Glory all right.  Her trainer, or Watcher is the term, was the one to kill her though.  Unfortunately, the portal still opened.

          The energy flux that was the portal was both beautiful and terrible in its existence.  It seemed to be made of nothing _but_ energy.  Raw, pure, lightning that made it's own cloud in the air.  Occasionally a lightning bolt would leak out and strike something of the world below it.  The lightning then changed the very substance that made where it struck real.  It changed the reality of whatever it hit.  Striking a street where a car was just driving along, the entire street just caved in right in front of the car, barely giving the driver enough time to stop.  When he gets out and looks into the chasm the lightning bolt created, he will see the very depths of a very literal and very real Hell.

          Another change is City hall, changed into some kind of factory for an electric eel type of demon that nobody dare recognize.  A final change is made to the very air as a mythical creature everyone knew to be fiction and false, a dragon, flew out of the lightning that came from the cloud and circled, looking for prey.  During all these changes to reality, our main characters have been dealing with their personal turmoils, there believed to be final thoughts, and their regrets and wishes.  And their final hopes.

          To cut out a lot of…huh?  Put it in?  Are you serious?!  Sigh  Fine, whatever.  Ok folks, the editor wants the emotional garbage, that personally I…FINE!  I have to stop writing like this is a diary or whatever and actually put out the story now, or I'm fired.  I love my job.  Really, I do.  But here ya go.

The energy vortex swirled and flashed in the early morning night.  It was the most amazing, yet devastating sight that the Slayer and her friends had ever seen, and they had seen a lot.

Buffy and her little sister Dawn stood atop the platform that Glory had built for this event, for her trip home.  Now, Buffy had beaten Glory and was somehow sure that she would not be coming back, despite knowing that the insane hell god would obviously want revenge for her ruined chance. Despite all this, Buffy was only thinking of one thing at the moment, and that was her sister.

"What are you doing?!" Buffy yelled as she grabbed her sister, just as the fifteen year old was about to run past her and jump into the swirling vortex of destructive hell energies barely twenty feet below them.

"I have to jump…the energy." Dawn whimpered as Buffy held onto her, keeping her from stopping what she started.

"It'll kill you!" Buffy exclaimed, terrified at what Dawn was about to do.

"I know," Dawn whispered as she looked at her sister, her only family left in the world.  "Buffy, I know about the ritual.  I have to stop it!"

"No!" Buffy's voice shook as she held onto her only reason left for living, her sister.  Her promise to her mother.

"I have to!  Look at what's happening!" Dawn shouted as at that exact moment, a surge of lightning from the churning vortex below shot into the sky beside them, and a flying dragon like demon appeared and flew around the tower, only to disappear out of sight mere moments later.

"Buffy, you have to let me go!  The blood starts it, and until the blood stops flowing, it'll never stop!" Dawn pleaded with her sister.  Buffy could only shake her head.

"You know you have to let me.  It has to have the blood." Dawn explained, looking past her sister at the swirling vortex that her blood, that she had caused.  She has caused so much pain and suffering for so many people…she, she can't let it go on like this.

Buffy reflected on those words, and all the hidden meanings that it had meant to her over the past few days.  The time she spoke to Dawn in the hospital, the conversation with Spike, the whole conversation with the group back at the magic shop, and finally on the message that her spirit guide had given her; "Death is your gift."  "Death…"  "Is your gift."

And Buffy was visibly shaken by the realization that dawned on her.  A light of understanding came to her face as she turned slowly, her internal Slayer clock instinctively telling her what time it was.  And as she turned, a strong orange hue took to the sky, and slowly, slowly but surely, an orb of orange red fire was forming on the horizon and slowly growing larger as it inched higher upon the sky.  It was Dawn.

Buffy turned back to her sister, a strange serenity within her features all of a sudden.  As soon as Dawn looked in her sister's eyes, she knew exactly what Buffy was planning on doing 

"Buffy, no…" she pleaded.

"Dawnie, I have to." Buffy stated.

"NO!" Dawn begged.

"Listen to me, there isn't a lot of time.  Listen." Buffy began.

"Dawn listen to me, listen." Buffy urged her sister to hear her last words. "I love you, I will always love you. This is the work that I have to do."

"Tell Giles that…tell Giles that I figured it out, that…I'm OK. Give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong.  Dawn the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."

Dawn was crying as her sister gave her, her final message, her last words.  She would know them by heart until the day she died.  Taking Dawn's face in her hands one final time, Buffy kissed her sister lovingly on the cheek, and said goodbye one last time, with her eyes.

Then she turned and ran to the end of the platform, leaving a crying Dawn behind her, as she ran towards the birthing one.  And then, she disappeared over the edge, heading straight for the heart of that evil energy that Dawn had unleashed unwillingly.  It was far too late, but Dawn cried out anyway.

"BUFFY!!!" and then she wept as she fell to her knees, seeing and feeling the rip in reality disappearing, and everything was normal again.  Except that Dawn was all alone now.  She had no one.  Not her sister, not her mother, but…but.

Dawn steadied herself as the light of the new dawn reached her face.  She stood up slowly and began to walk down the stairs of the tower.  When she reached the ground, she was about to pass out from her injuries, and steadying herself against the stone wall, she saw the others gathering, around a small pile of debris.  And she saw.  Just like she had seen her mother.  She lay there, so still, so very, very still.  Fresh tears flowed from Dawn's eyes, but she steadied herself and walked over to the others.

She would be brave.  She would live.  For Buffy. 

She knew what she had to do.  And later, if asked, she knew that she would say, and do, that she would do it again in a heartbeat.  After giving Dawn her message to her friends and Giles, she kissed her little sister on the cheek, letting the little Summers woman know how much she truly loved her.

Buffy turned after that, and despite knowing full well what she was doing, what it would mean, and that she was more than likely about to die, she felt so very, very calm.  Yet as the energy storm raged beneath them, she also felt an anxiousness, a feeling that if she didn't do this, and do this soon, that it would be too late, even for her sacrifice.  So filled with sudden adrenaline, working with Slayer muscles, she ran as fast as she could, and as she reached the edge, she jumped, spreading her arms out, her legs straight.  She almost felt like she was trying to fly, but she knew on every level of her subconscious that she was falling, and about to die.

This is when something else happened.  Just the few seconds that it took Buffy to fall from the platform into the energy vortex, it suddenly decided to send out a few more pulses of energy.  Specifically two more bolts of lightning.  One arched immediately to the hidden corner where two witches lay in fear and at the same time each other's comfort.  Willow and her lover, Tara.  Willow saw the bolt coming, and did the only thing that both her heart and mind said _to_ do.  She flung Tara aside and protected her love from sure harm.

          The other bolt headed for Xander Harris, whose own lover and fiancée Anya tried to do the same thing Willow had done.  Yet, midair, the lightning bolt itself did something strange.  It split into two, and one continued toward Xander away from Anya's blocked path, while the other branch immediately struck the cursing British, bleach blond vampire, who had just rolled out of the way of a crack caused by the lightning, only to roll right into it.

          Yet as instantaneous as all of these actions were, Buffy's fall into and through the vortex was still much quicker.  Mid-strike on all of these targets, the entire apparition dissolved in the air.  Everyone of them had thought they were all about to die.  But that was not what the vortex did.  Well, it did in the case of Buffy, but that was only because she leapt from a five story tower to begin with.  She was dead the moment she jumped.

          The Vortex was exactly what it was meant to be.  A portal.  A portal to all of reality and beyond.  A portal that worked throughout all realities at the same time.  The same time that it opened at the top of that tower in the one-Starbucks town called Sunnydale, it had opened across all realms, all universes, all realities at the exact same moment, for the same amount of time.  The lightning was how it transferred its "passengers".  The lightning, in one reality would strike something and then randomly, for the most part, drop it in another completely alien reality.  Yet the moment the portal was dissolved, reality automatically healed and resifted itself.

          There was a problem though.  An extremely rare and nearly impossible event took place.  Apparently, enough "Key" energy still remained within the vortex that it was not _immediately_ dissolved.  Also, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Spike were all being shifted, or to be more accurate, in the process of being shifted to another reality.  When the vortex dissolved mid-strike, the lightning bolts had just managed to _start_ pulling on them, but never really got a total hold on them though.  So they weren't totally pulled out of their reality, and they weren't traded with some other really bizarre thing.  Instead, they were copied into the remaining Key energy.

          It was the energy of Buffy's soul moving onto Heaven that got the residual energy to start bouncing around the realm that is between Realms.  It was here that it interacted with another energy vortex, which just so happened to be another portal, this one coming back from a demon dimension, in the shape of a black Chevy convertible.

          The little bit of Key portal energy somehow immediately drew energy from this new source, not really directed by anything, just a reaction.  Somehow, during this, it copied two of the people that were riding inside of the car, and the new portal was flung out in an entirely different direction than what it had been going to.  It was even flung far away from Earth.

          After a time, it settled into one spot, where it waited, without realizing or aware that it was waiting, for just one more type of energy to attract itself to, and then it would open, like it was supposed to.  It had both a long and not a long wait ahead of it.

          One of the intrauniversal beings, calling itself Q to the human race, found the little sparkle of Key energy, and saw what it was holding within it's very energy cells.  He was intrigued, to say the most.  Not very often that this type of energy lasted as long as this one apparently had.  He left it alone, for the moment, and informed his brethren, the other Q, about it.  Thinking it totally insignificant, they told him he could do with it as he pleased.

          He decided to open it.  But what fun would it be if he was the only one to see or encounter whatever would come out of it?  So he waited.  He _did_ have a long wait ahead of him.  Not that it really mattered to him.  He was a Q after all.


	2. Chapter One, where it begins

_Disclaimer:__  I do not own one single character of this story.  All of the crew of the _Enterprise E_ and the Federation, Star Fleet, and the concept of the Q, all belong to Gene Rodenbery, to whom this story is written for.  All characters and story lines from the TV shows Buffy: the Vampire Slayer and Angel belong to Joss Whedon and his companies._

_Chapter 1:_

            The USS NCC 1701-E _Sovereign _class starship _Enterprise_, began its mission like all of its missions.  Just an ordinary patrol through a somewhat remote region of space that was between several worlds of the Federation, just outside of any Stellar systems.  Kind of like a cop patrolling your street for Neighborhood Watch.  Just a regular patrol that nothing interesting was _supposed_ to happen on.  With this ship's luck, not to mention name, this is anything _but_ a regular patrol.

            Which was why Captain Jean Luc Picard, Commanding officer of the Flagship of the entire Star Fleet Military, was being very paranoid, and was actually comfortable with that paranoia.

            "Mister Data," Picard spoke to his second officer at the Operations, "Have you finished with the scans of that star cluster we passed an hour ago?"

            The yellow-green skinned, brown haired android looked up from his consul and stared straight back at his Captain, as it was in his programming to do so, to show that he was listening and respected the individual he was speaking with.  "Not yet sir.  The ship's diagnostic was finished only thirteen minutes ago, and therefore the sensors have not yet completed their full sweep of the cluster.  It will be completed in approximately 2 minutes, 59 seconds.  I will inform you if anything "strange" shows up sir." The android finished the statement with a grin, knowing why the Captain was even asking.  It was strange to see the artificial life form show any emotion whatsoever, yet with the development of his emotion chip, it had quickly become a common and welcome sight.

            Picard grinned back at his long time friend and nodded, "Very good Mister Data.  Have there been any reports of…unusual occurrences?" He directed the question at his First Officer beside him, Commander William T. Riker.

            The dark haired officer grinned roguishly at his Captain and did his best to suppress the rising laugh in his chest.  Shaking his head, Will answered, "Not in the last ten minutes since the last time you asked sir."

            Picard just closed his eyes, sighing in humor over his officer's reactions to his paranoia.  "Is there something wrong sir?" the Commander asked.

            Smiling warmly, in a fatherly gesture almost, Picard turned to his friend and attempted to order his thoughts around his paranoia.  Finally, after a moment or two of thought, he tried, "You know Will, that on just about every single mission that starts out as a normal patrol of some remote region of space, or even just a routine scanning or scientific investigation, that for the first two or so days, everything is completely normal and safe and everything is fine.  Then all of a sudden, wham!" he clapped his hands together, "Something nobody could have seen coming hits us and either the ship is in danger, the crew is in danger, one of my officers is in danger or at the very least experiencing something completely unnatural, or we encounter not only some new life, but some stranger that has some unusual talents or powers and it often results in either the ship in danger, or one of my officers in danger, or…"

            Smiling like he would burst out laughing louder than a hyena, Will nodded and stopped the run on sentence before it could get started fully.  "I get the idea sir," he said, barely holding in the laughter.  "So that explains all the ship diagnostics all of a sudden, and the active scanning of the region.  Which by the way, I don't think this, or any sector of space has been so thoroughly scanned before.  But what's with having everyone go in for medical checkups and psychiatric evaluations all of a sudden?"

            Smiling, Picard settled back into his chair some and thought about his answer some before responding.  After several moments, "Well, in truth, beyond the paranoia, the medical exams _are_ not only routine, but required by Star Fleet regulations.  As for the "psychiatric evaluations", well the dear Counselor has been quite insistent lately on pestering me to send the new crew her way, so that she could at the very least get to know them.  You, of all people Will, should understand how…"insistent" the Counselor can be."

            Blushing furiously at the reminder of his newfound relationship with his old sweetheart, Riker turned his attention back to his consul, awaiting and actually hoping that some kind of emergency with the crew would pop up on it.  No matter what it was, though he never wanted anything life threatening to ever be read upon it, if it was important enough, he just might be able to get away from this embarrassment.

            Suddenly, almost in response to his unheard wish, his consul started beeping furiously.  Tapping in his authorization code, Riker quickly had the disturbance before him.  Knowing instinctively that the Captain's attention was on him as soon as the beep left the consul, Riker spoke while reading the report.  "There's been a power surge in one of the quarters.  Apparently the Replicator system was activated and then…it blew up?  Crew Quarters, aft port section, Deck 27…quarters 2573."

            Everybody looked up in shock.  Most especially the android at Operations.  Because they all knew whose quarters those were.  Data's quarters.  The Captain looked in curiosity, and mild concern at the android as the golden man stood up from his station.

            "Captain, if I may, I would like to go to my quarters to determine the source of the disturbance, as well as the extent of the damage." He respectfully requested.

            Picard nodded, ever the professional officer.  "Of course Mister Data.  Lieutenant, take his station."  With that Data hurried to the closest Turbo Lift and Lieutenant Peterson at the Engineering Station quickly got up and took over at Operations.  The nearest Ensign, that just happened to be standing around, took over for monitoring the Engineering Bridge station.

            Meanwhile…

            Out in the middle of space, about a tenth of a Parsec in front of the _Enterprise's_ course, Q1 had been watching the ship on it's path and mission since it first arrived in the sector.  He finally knew what he wanted to do with his little prize, the Key portal.  During the day and a half that the _Enterprise_ had used to scan what he considered the "front door" of the sector, he had already come up with a plan of how to work out his little amusement.

            Yet before the _Enterprise_ could come into range of the portal, Q1 was interrupted from his musings.

            "Just what do you think you're doing?" Q2a suddenly asked.

            Q1 turned away from the approaching starship to notice that he suddenly wasn't alone.  "Oh, hello Q," he commented when he recognized who had come up to his point in space.

            Yet the newcomer was not to be distracted from his purpose, and for the moment it was finding out what exactly the omnipotent being was up to.  "Answer my question Q!  What are you doing?" Q2a asked.  The first Q just shrugged and pointed first to the portal, then to the approaching starship, with it's anti-matter warp core.

            "I just thought I'd finally do something with this portal I was given.  It would be pretty pointless if I were the only one around when it opened, right?  And after all this time, _this _is the only starship that has passed through this space for nearly three hundred years.  I don't want to wait around for any other _people_ to show up.  Not that it would happen anytime soon!  Come on Q!  You can't be the only one of us to mess around with this Captain of yours!  Well, ok, you _are_ allowed," he added when he saw the elder Q about to make a comment.

            "Oh please Q!  I would have asked if I knew it would be _them_, but how was I supposed to know?  They just showed up yesterday, and I've already got a plan on what to do.  Nothing harmful or even requiring too much interference on our part.  I've already masked the portal so they won't detect it, now we just need them to more or less run through it."

            "What's this '_we_' all of a sudden?" Q2a asked his compatriot, despite himself liking what he was hearing.  The elder Q who had more or less been put in charge of the entire human race, had discovered that it was not only the _Enterprise_ that held the fate of the entire race in it's grip, but the Captain of the ship.  In this case, one Jean Luc Picard.  Q1 had often led other Q2a to interact with the human race, but when it came to the continued survival and evolution of the whole species, he was told, and at the same time told everybody else, that he was directly in charge and the only one to be able to influence any of it.  Still…it would certainly liven Jean Luc's spirits a little if his paranoia was certainly and suddenly confirmed.

            At the smile (equivalent) of the Q2a, Q1 knew that he had his accomplice, as well as a good companion for the fun.  "So, what exactly _is_ your plan?" Q2a asked.

            Q1 grinned mischievously as he quickly outlined what he was planning on doing, and how he had planned on carrying it out.  Q2a mulled over the entire plan, once he heard it, for an entire length of a full human second.  Then he nodded and announced, "I love it!  But you do have to take into consideration the adaptation process that whatever or whoever comes out of the portal will go through.  I'm sure the Crew would help to the best of their abilities, but they can only do so much you understand?"

            Q1 just kept grinning and nodded at the portal.  "Take a look inside."  At the elder's hesitation, he added, "Oh go on, it's perfectly safe!  I've done it myself."

            Q2a did so.  When he came back from the portal, he too was grinning like an idiot.  He even started to laugh.  "Oh, now this is just too perfect!  Jean Luc is certainly going to have his hands full with this crowd.  Hah, hah, hah, hah!" Q2a crowed.

            "What's so funny Q?" Q1 asked.

            Still laughing, Q2a looked at Q1 and judged his apparent history from his very appearance.  "Oh, that's right.  You wouldn't really know who they are.  Well my dear boy, allow me to introduce you to Buffy the Vampire Slayer!"  And then he broke out into a fit of laughter.

            "Who?"

            Q2a suddenly stopped laughing.  "You have got to be kidding me!" he suddenly screeched.  At the answering Q's negative response, he just sighed.  "And here I thought that just about everybody knew about that girl by now.  She's certainly done enough.  Not to mention every one of her counterparts."

            Turning to Q1, he explained.  "Vampires, first of all, are a semi-mythical creature on Earth, made to plague human kind and even destroy humanity.  I myself wasn't even aware of their existence until I happened upon a universe where a human friend I had met was killed by one of them.  You ofcourse, knowing me, know that I immediately saved his life.  While I was about to blow the vampire to residuals of his very atoms, I was beaten to the punch as they say, by none other than the Vampire Slayer.  Buffy.  I would go on about the whole story, but you can find out about it much quicker by looking into it yourself.  After I saw that Buffy was a good person, I even offered to help her and her allies in a battle that saved all of humanity from destruction.  I did very little, as we are supposed to do.  Then she and her allies even helped _me_, and only because I asked, nothing more, with that little trouble with my son a few years back, where he had to learn the value of mortal life?"

"Yes, I remember that whole fiasco.  So you're saying that this girl and her allies are trapped inside this portal?  And we're about to unleash 20th Century demon fighters onto your state of the art 24th Century encrusted Captain Jean Luc Picard?" Q1 asked.

            Q2a nodded.  "Yep."

            Suddenly both Q's were crowing with laughter.  "So what are you going to do with the left over Key energy?" Q asked when they had control of themselves again.

            Q1, looking perplexed, asked, "What?  What 'key energy'?"

            Q2a sighed.  "You really don't know anything about the demon worlds and dimensions, do you?"

            Then he suddenly saw something within the very portal itself.  Looking closer, he realized that they were memories.  Fabricated, human memories.  He accessed the chaotic jumble of pictures and information, at first it making no sense to any kind of mind in its disassembled state.  With but a thought, the information was suddenly in it's original form within a tenth of a moment.  Reading the thoughts and memories before him, quite literally, like an open book, Q2a's grin quickly grew.

            He indicated the memories he had discovered to the younger Q, who when seeing what he saw held a mirror of Q's own smile.  Then he nodded and silently the two looked as one at the ship, and then through it.  At the same time the two came to the same idea and when they shared a look at each other it was completely identical.  A very evil look.

            About the time that Data was entering his quarters, about three simultaneous things began to happen.  First, Data entered his quarters, only for Spot, his cat, to come running out as soon as the door was open and faster than even Data could track.  Raising an eyebrow, and knowing that the feline would come back within a day or so, Data felt a brief flash of concern over his cat and then focusing it back to the concern of his entire quarters.

            Entering, he saw something that he had never before witnessed in his time on the _Enterprise_.  Half of his quarters were nothing but blackened soot and scorch marks, originating as he had been told from the Replicator.  His bedroom area however was safe, mostly due to the fact that it was in another room entirely.  It was also the most likely place that Spot had been staying when the Replicator blew.  On the dark side, all of his paintings were gone, little more than ash on the floor, and his work area and desk were completely ruined.  Sighing in disappointment, and feeling a strong yet brief flash of loss, Data walked into his quarters and towards the Replicator, intending to discover the cause of the explosion.

            Then, on the Bridge, both the Operations consul _and_ the Engineering Station consuls began beeping some sort of emergency.  Lieutenant Peterson had enough experience to know what the emergency readouts were telling him, however the Ensign that had relieved him at Engineering had absolutely no clue as to what was happening.  Which is why Commander Riker got up from his post and immediately relieved the Ensign to discover what the problem was.

            Standing up, even though he was more often knocked off his feet while standing rather than sitting, Picard turned to look at his second in Command.  "Number One?" he asked, hoping for the explanation.

            Riker was so shocked by what he was seeing that it took him a moment or two to compose himself enough to answer.  Yet his answer, from his strong and intense tone, conveyed all the shock that the Crew of the _Enterprise_ ever needed.  "I don't know how, and I don't know what sir, but _something_ is drawing power from the Warp Core!"

            Silence reigned in the moments following that statement.  Until Lieutenant Peterson spoke up his bad news.  "Sir!  Something…some kind of energy field that was masked from our sensors just passed through our hull!  It's headed directly for the Warp Core!"

            Picard wasted no time with stating the obvious, instead directing the energy into action.  Tapping the metal over his heart, he activated his commbadge and tried to get out the warning soon enough to save the lives of his people.

            "Picard to Engineering!  Geordi get everyone…" he was however interrupted.

            'We know, we know Captain!' came Geordi's voice over the Comm.  Though it was partly muffled due to the very loud lightning and thundering sounds that came over with it.  Then, about ninety seconds after it had appeared to start…it just stopped.  Several moments of total silence later, Geordi's voice came back over the Comm.

            'Uh, Captain?  You, uh, may want to sent a medical team down here.  Some kind of…_portal_ just opened up right in front of the Warp Core and…uh, _spat_ out about six people.  Their unconscious, but alive…I, uh think.'

            "Picard to Sickbay, we have casualties in Engineering.  Picard to Security, send two teams to Engineering to watch over the…patients." Picard rapid-shot out orders.

            Riker stood up from the Engineering station.  "Security, sir?" he asked.  Picard just nodded.  Then he seemed to come to some sort of decision and started walking for the Turbolift.  "Number One, with…" he began, but he was interrupted once again by another series of emergency beeps coming from the consuls.

            Lieutenant Peterson quickly checked the incoming information and relayed it to the Captain, though his complexion was a bit paler.  "Captain, there's been another power surge in Commander Data's quarters.  And he hasn't been answering the emergency communiqués from Security."

            The Captain nodded his head at the information and waved Will after him.  "Lieutenant, you have the Bridge.  Number One, with me.  We'll check on Data on our way to Sickbay."

            Once the Turbolift doors were closed, Will turned on his friend and Commanding officer and looked him straight in the eye and asked in a voice just as confused as he was, "OK, what is going on?  Security?  Who do you think these people, if that's what they are, are?"

            Shaking his head, his eyes as honest as they've ever been, Picard answered, "I have no idea Number One.  But I get the feeling that all of my fears and suspicions of the past day or so have just been confirmed."

            Nodding, and now understanding his Commander's reasons, Riker replied with a simple, "No offense sir, but I hope you're wrong."

            "So do I Number One, so do I."

            In Engineering, about two minutes ago or so, Geordi LaForge was just walking past the tower that was the Warp Core, the very power source and life of this ship.  AKA, his baby.  So when just about every readout and consul in the entire Engineering section suddenly starts beeping up a storm about some kind of power drain, directly on the Core, he's more than a little distressed.

            Rushing forward to the Diagnostics board, a large desk-like consul in the middle of the walkway, straight out from the Core, Geordi stops just short of just touching it when his Optical Implants suddenly picked up a _very_ high level of Neutrinos, directly in front of the Warp Core.  He barely had time to shout out, "Everyone!  Away from the Core!  NOW!!" Before a tiny dot of light suddenly appeared about ten feet from the Core, about ten feet up from the deck.

            It quickly grew, until it was less than a foot from both the Core and the deck.  The sound of thunder and energy sounded louder with each second.  The portal looked like nothing more than a cloud of pure white energy, and occasionally a spark of lightning, increasing the sound of thunder, would strike out, but not really strike anything.

            Before anybody could really react, except to run and stare, the energy cloud, whatever it was, flashed brighter for a moment, and then _something_ came flying out of it.  A second later, it flashed again and another body shot out.  It flashed four more times.  Each time another body was deposited.  After that, it kept flashing and pulsing for several minutes after that.

            Geordi heard the Captain's warning right after the second flash.  'Picard to Engineering, Geordi get everyone…!'

            "We know, we know Captain!" Geordi couldn't help yelling as he directed every one of his crew out of the Engineering section, unsure of what would happen if that cloud of energy actually touched the Warp Core.

            Then, not even before everyone was evacuated, the portal just dissolved in the air.  Leaving not even a stray neutrino.  Everyone just froze when the only indication that anything had occurred was the six naked bodies on the floor of Engineering.  Geordi, as well as several other Chief officers, quickly ran to each of them, checking for vitals.  Fortunately, they found them.

            "Uh, Captain?  You, uh, may want to sent a medical team down here." Geordi reported to the commanding officer.  "Some kind of…_portal_ just opened up right in front of the Warp Core and…uh, _spat_ out about six people.  Their unconscious, but alive…I, uh think."  He moved over to a yellow-white haired man, but when he checked for vitals, pulse and breath, he found absolutely none.  He sighed, not sure why he was even mourning the passing of what could have been an invader from another dimension.  But still, there was the smallest chance that he could have been a refugee running from some unspeakable evil, and these people had just lost one of their number.

            "Sir," an Ensign trying to get his attention shouted at him.

            "What is it, Mulcady?" he asked, his voice suddenly tired.

            The Ensign looked up at him with sad eyes.  "Sir, this one's dead," came the answer.

            Closing his eyes, Geordi nodded and stood up.  Maybe he couldn't help two of these people, but by God, he would make damn sure that the others lived.  It was at this point that the Medical team, along with the Chief Medical Officer Doctor Beverly Crusher came in and took over looking after the strangers.  Geordi sighed in relief.  Nobody died easy on Beverly's watch…in the good way.

            But when the two security teams came in and started either helping the Medics or just watching the proceedings, he got real nervous, real fast.

            Data had absolutely no idea what had caused his Replicator to explode.  He had removed the casing and gone over every remaining circuit, that was still intact and even some that weren't.  As far as he could tell, nothing "physically" had been wrong with the device.  He supposed that he would have to go over the ships sensor logs with Geordi if he wanted to know what had happened.

            And just as he was turning to do that, which just so happened to be but a second after the phenomenon in Engineering had disappeared, a bolt of the same pure white energy, like lightning struck the android through the torso. He froze, like a statue, for several minutes, the energy channeling through him all of a sudden, and then it was like the golden man was having a seizure.  The energy stopped flowing out of the Replicator remains and danced around Data for several more moments before he finally just collapsed to the floor, his system shut down from the overload.  His eyes, rather than being open, were shut tight and for but a moment there was movement beneath the lids.  Like in REM with humans.

            Yet the strangest part came in the moments before Captain Picard and Commander William Riker came into the quarters.  A strange green energy shimmered across Data's right arm for several of those moments, and then the arm just changed.  From the gold/green skinned, strong male arm, to that of a petite, more feminine _human_ arm.  Then it changed back right before the door was opened by the Captain's authorization code and the two Senior officers rushed in and to Data's side.


	3. Chapter Two, Wakey wakey

_Chapter 2:_

            In the middle of space, just behind where the _Enterprise_ had stopped itself, the two Q were congratulating themselves on a plan very well pulled off.  "You know Q," Q1 pointed out while laughing his metaphorical head off, "Getting Data down to his quarters by blowing up his Replicator!  That was _genius_!!"

            Q2a just waved off the compliment like it was nothing, chuckling some himself.  "It was nothing big.  The cat was safe after all."  This comment sent the younger Q howling into laughter again.  "But to be perfectly honest, I've often wondered what it would look like if a Replicator blew up like those old time ovens used to."

            Both Q were quiet for some time, genuinely contemplating the concept.  Then they both started laughing like hyenas three seconds after the thought.

            After they finished their jovial celebration of sorts, Q2a turned to Q1 in a very serious manner and asked, "Did you incorporate those "advancements" we talked about into the portal clones?  They won't be able to easily adapt to their new environment if you did not do it properly."

            Q1 sobered immediately upon the question.  He nodded affirmative and backed it up with a verbal response.  "Ofcourse I did.  I wasn't born last millennium you know.  They all have the photographic memory that all Star Fleet cadets have, along with learning and reading speed comparable to the android's.  The vampires have also been equipped with what you've told me their real counterparts have.  But the one with the chip, since that could be so easily removed, I replaced with numerous neural clusters that would basically do the same job."

            Q2a nodded his approval.  "And their memories?" he asked.

            Q1 nodded his head in understanding.  "I did my best as they were coming out.  They're all intact, none of the gaps that might have been there had we not done this.  Also, it will take just over a week for them to fully regain their memories.  Maybe sooner if they end up jogging one another's memories with certain traits.  A week was the best I could do under the circumstances."

            "It's good enough." Q2a supported.  "It should give them the necessary time to heal from whatever mental traumas they were suffering when this Key portal picked them up.  What I don't understand is how it happened in the first place.  The Buffy that I first met never had a sister.  In fact she was an Immortal, and they're all foundlings."

            Q2a just shrugged his (metaphorical) shoulders, and willed himself to the interior of the ship, where in his natural disembodied state he could watch several many things all at once.  Soon, Q1 joined him, waiting and watching for the strangers they had deposited to wake up, and the events that would transpire soon after.

            Approximately five hours later in Sickbay, all of the bio-beds were occupied, and the Chief Medical Officer was starting to pull her hair out.  Four of the strangers that had come through that phenomenon, as people were starting to call it, were completely human, normal, and for the moment just asleep.  As far as their vibrational sequence, the aspect that Star Fleet found most easiest to discover people or items from alternate dimensions or realities, and how to tell which universe specifically they came from, they were completely normal.  As far as she or anybody really could tell, they _were_ from this reality.

            The other two though, two males, one with brown blond highlighted tips hair and the other with completely bleached blond hair, both things long thought of being in the ancient past, were dead.  Well, not really.  As far as the average medic could discern they would be.  No respiratory activity, no circulative activity whatsoever, and their bodies were colder than space to the touch.  But they _did_ have brain activity.  That's what confused the hell out of her.  How could somebody, _anybody_ human have one without the other?  If it weren't so damn frustrating, it would be the greatest discovery in Star Fleet Medical history since the hypo-spray.

            The final straw in her bad day of all bad days was Data.  Apparently some power overload had destroyed half his quarters, and when he went to check it out, another power surge had occurred and apparently he was caught up in it himself.  As far as both she and Geordi could determine, Data was fully operational.  Nothing was wrong with any of his systems; all of his parts were completely intact and in perfect working order.  He just wasn't on.

            Geordi was checking his power management system and his power source right now, while the good Doctor went back and forth between all of her new patients.  They had been naked when they came out of the phenomenon, so the medical staff had just put them in the standard blue pajama like wear that all patients of the Sickbay wore when they became a resident.

            It was when Beverly was checking on the young red-haired girl that any change since the strangers had come in, began to happen.  The blond young woman in the bio-bed next to the redhead began to wake up, as was obvious from the readout of her brain waves above her head.  Yet from her body, one couldn't tell if she was alive, asleep, or completely awake with her eyes closed.

            Buffy was awake.  She just had no idea where she was, who she was, or for that matter what was going on.  But she was awake.  And ironically the first thought she had when she awoke was _'I'm hungry.'_

            Her next thought led to her first reaction.  _'Where am I?  Where can I get food?  And come to think of it…who am I?'_  The next realization was that she had amnesia and that she was in a hospital.  And for some strange reason she did not really remember, she did not like hospitals.

            "Aaaahhh!!!" Buffy sat up screaming at the top of her lungs.

            Beverly, startled out of her wits, jumped and then turned around to the blond and put her hands on her shoulders, trying to comfort the obviously scared and traumatized girl.  "It's all right, it's all right!" she kept repeating, trying to get the girl to calm down enough to listen to her.  Buffy stopped screaming but the look in her eyes, like a scared animal, and the way they kept looking around, told the Doctor that she was still in shock.  She needed to get the girl calm.

            Turning to her head nurse, "Alyssa, get me 2cc's morphine!"  Then she turned her attention back to the struggling young woman.  "Calm down, it's going to be all right.  It's going to be all right, you're safe now.  Calm down!" the Doctor soothed in a gentle voice.

            Suddenly, Buffy, entirely on instinct, locked on to whatever was holding her.  The woman in front of her.  Without even thinking, Buffy just grabbed the woman, and flung her back away from her like she was little more than a scarecrow.

            Beverly, along with the rest of her medical staff, were amazed at the strength the small girl had.  And all of the readings said she was human, but no human could throw another across a room like the blond just did the red haired doctor.  No one however was more surprised than the young woman who did it.

            Once she was no longer being restrained, Buffy stood up and got control of her emotions and instincts.  She knew that, given her size and the Doctor's, she should not have been able to do that.  About a second after Buffy was on her feet though, no less than six men in gray and black uniforms with yellow collars were covering her, each one holding a strange gray pistol-like weapon.  Buffy backed up some, gulping and thought of raising her hands in surrender.  But judging by the tense atmosphere in the room, not to mention how these guys looked like they were on a hair trigger, Buffy determined that the best coarse of action was to remain completely still.

            On the other side of the room, Beverly was getting up from the floor, with help from a couple of nurses.  When she saw her patient, still scared out of her mind, surrounded by the Security officers that the Captain had assigned to watch them, she immediately went into what her son sometimes called "Mother mode".

            "Stop!  Get away from her!" she ordered as loud as she could.  Moving forward and forcefully moving the Security officers away from her patient, she continued, "Leave her alone.  It was a reflex.  She's scared and confused, and I will NOT have you terrorizing my patients!  Now get back to your posts!" she ordered.

            Turning to Buffy, Beverly smiled as gently as she could, waiting for Buffy's reaction.  Buffy continued to watch the guards for a few more moments, and then turned her full attention to the woman that had probably just saved her life.  Then she suddenly made the connection that this was the woman she had just thrown across the room.  Her eyes were suddenly filled with a tearing concern and her expression conveyed all the guilt she felt over her actions.

            "Oh my god!  Are you ok?  I'm-I'm so sorry," Buffy apologized.  "I-I-I didn't even think, I'm so, so, so sorry.  Are you ok?  Are you hurt?  I'm so sorry!"

            Beverly smiled, knowing instantly that this young woman truly was sorry for her instinctive reaction.  The Doctor took a couple more cautious steps towards the traumatized woman, being careful not to scare her too much and tried to allay her fears.  "I'm fine.  But right now we're more concerned about you.  Are you feeling all right?  Any pains, or discomfort, or problems moving or anything?"

            Buffy blinked.  She had not expected that kind of answer to _her_ questions of if she had injured this kind woman.  Judging by the blue jacket, and the blue collar that most of the people working in the room were wearing, she judged the woman to be the doctor in charge here.  The ones with the yellow collars were obviously some kind of guards or security people.  She also noted that everybody was wearing the same black and gray uniforms, except for herself and the few others on the beds, who were wearing blue silkish pajamas as far as she could tell.

            "Uh…" Buffy couldn't think of a proper response to the Doctor's question.  Physically she felt fine, she just couldn't remember a thing as far as who she was or where she came from, how she got here…stuff like that.  Apparently she could understand speech, and understood a few basic things like doctors, hospitals, and general "world" stuff.  She just couldn't remember anything about herself.

            When the oriental looking nurse came up to the red haired doctor and handed her some gray tube thing and said, "Here you are Doctor," Buffy suspected it to be some kind of tranquilizer or something.  Immediately she came to her answer, "I'm fine.  I was just startled, I think.  Uh, no pains or anything.  No broken bones either as far as I can tell."

            Beverly nodded and handed the gray tube back to the nurse.  "Thank you Alyssa.  Watch the other patients for any change."  At that Buffy noticed once again that she wasn't the only one on the beds.  On the bed right in front of her was an elfin redhead that for some reason she felt an immediate affinity for, like she was her best friend or something like that.  For all she knew, she probably was.

            When Buffy looked up again, Beverly was noticeably closer.  Buffy blinked in surprise, but didn't really react in any other way.  Beverly spoke in a gentle voice, one that she often reserved for her more disturbed patients.  "Are you all right?  Physically I'm sure you're fine…but are _you_ all right?"

            Buffy just shook her head, still looking at the girl on the bed.  "I can't remember anything."

            "What?"

            "I can't…remember anything," Buffy repeated.

            "What do you mean, "anything"?" Beverly asked for details.

            Buffy shrugged, trying to remember the specific word.  "I, I don't know who I am.  I don't know how I got here, hell, I don't even know _where_ I am."

            "You're on board the _Enterprise_, in Sickbay.  It's a starship with Star Fleet.  We were passing through an empty sector of space when some kind of phenomenon deposited you six in our Engineering room." Beverly explained all that she knew about it helping Buffy to sit back on the Bio-bed.

            Buffy shrugged.  "Well, that answers one question," she muttered.  "Sickbay?  That some kind of hospital?"

            Beverly smiled warmly and nodded.  "Something like that."  She picked up a nearby medical Tricorder and began running a new set of scans on the blonde, now that she was awake.

            "And what's a starship?  And Star Fleet?  _Enterprise_ sounds familiar though.  Wasn't it some kind of space shuttle?" Buffy started asking question after question.

            Beverly didn't really answer the girl's questions, but she certainly answered some of hers.  Apparently the strangers were from the past, not knowing about starships, or Star Fleet, and confusing the _Enterprise_ with the early NASA space shuttle that had the same name.  But the Doctor's scans were all coming back negative.  No chronoton particles anywhere in her body, and the only neutrinos present were all still in Engineering.  As far as any scans could tell, this girl and her friends had always been in this universe, in this time, and human too.  But if they were from Earth's past, how the hell did they get all the way out here?

            "What's your name?" the girl suddenly asked.

            Beverly drew her attention away from her work for the moment and smiled, answering, "Beverly.  Beverly Crusher.  I'm the Chief Medical Officer on board.  Can you remember your name?"

            Buffy shook her head.  "Total blank.  I mean, I obviously remember and know general 'world' stuff…but I can't remember anything about…about _me_."

            Beverly nodded, understanding the frustration some herself.  "Don't worry.  I'm sure it'll come back to you." She assured.  She finished with her scans and put the Tricorder away.  Just as she was turning back to her guest to continue their conversation however, the Bio-bed next to them began to beep that the young red haired woman was about to wake up as well.

            The young woman groaned a little as she came out of unconsciousness.  This elided an immediate reaction out of Buffy that was more instinctual than anything else.  Jumping off the bed she was sitting on, she was beside the girl in an instant shouting, "Wills!"

            Groaning a little more as she came around, Willow slowly opened her eyes and said the first thing on her mind, which also happened to be the first thing that she saw.  "Buffy?"

            Buffy stood up, surprised.  Looking over her shoulder at Beverly, "I guess that's my name."

            Beverly smiled.  She put her hand on Buffy's shoulder, pulling her back some gently, "It's going to be all right.  Just give her some room to breathe."  Buffy nodded and backed up.

            Slowly Willow sat up and tried looking around.  She was confused by just about everything else, but when she focused on the short blonde, she immediately perked up and repeated her first thought, "Buffy!  What happened?  Where are we?"

            Buffy just shrugged and turned to Beverly.  Taking this as cue, Beverly repeated her answer to Buffy, "You're all on the _Enterprise_, it's a starship traveling through space.  You're in our Sickbay, sort of our onboard hospital as it is.  My name is Beverly Crusher, I'm the Chief Medical Officer.  Do you remember your name?"

            Willow glazed over for a couple of seconds and then jerked her head in shock.  Blinking, "I-I, I can't…remember.  But I know your name.  We're friends.  I know it!" Willow insisted looking at Buffy.  Buffy, at hearing her admission was surprised to find that she felt the same way, and even knew the girls name, now that she had shouted it out loud.

            "Your name is Willow.  I don't know how I know that, but I get the sense that we're friends too.  What happened to us?" she asked Beverly.

            "That's what we'd like to know," Beverly muttered, taking the Tricorder to scan Willow.  "Willow, are you feeling all right?  No discomfort or pains or anything wrong?"

            "What's wrong with Willow now?" a male voice called out.

            Everybody turned and saw that it was the white dark haired young man, but Willow answered before she turned around, or even before she realized she was speaking.  "I'm fine Xander," she answered.  When she realized what she'd done, again, she turned around with just as much shock as the others shared.

            Groaning as he sat up, he glanced around the room, and when he didn't recognize neither the place nor the people there, he just froze for several seconds.  When he had processed it all, he finally turned to the two people he felt in his heart he did know and asked them, "OK, I get the feeling were not in Kansas anymore Dorothy, so…what's going on?"

            Buffy looked confused for a second, while Willow just rolled her eyes.  "I thought my name was Buffy, not Dorothy?" she asked for clarification.

            When he heard that, Xander turned around so he was sitting on the bed, with his legs hanging off, and not lying on it and rolled his own eyes.  "It's just an expression Buff.  Now, what's wrong with Will?  Because I distinctly remember hearing just now that something was wrong with Will."  His voice conveyed an amount of concern that said he was also considered a friend.

            Willow repeated herself, "I'm fine Xander.  And I guess my name really is Willow."

            Feigning shock, Xander sarcastically remarked, "No, your name is Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile.  Ofcourse your name is Willow.  Just like mine is Xander, and Buff is Buff."

            "Fy," Buffy added.

            "Huh?"

            Willow answered for her.  "Buf-fy.  Her name is Buffy, not just Buff.  And we've all kind of woken up with a sort of Amnesia.  So far, you're the only one to remember the most about who we all are.  I don't suppose you recognize the other people lying around, do you?"

            Looking at the other bodies present on the other Bio-beds, Xander was both surprised and not so surprised to find that he could click a name with each face.  But when he tried to add in the memories of how they all met, or what they were doing before they got here…total blank.

            "Um, yeah.  Bleach boy there is Spike.  I don't think I like him.  The other girl, her name is…Cordelia.  Cordelia Chase I think.  And the other guy is Dead boy."

            Quirking an eyebrow, Buffy asked, "_Dead Boy?_"

            Shrugging and looking chastened, Xander amended his observation and restated, "OK, sorry, his name is Angel.  But for some reason, I like calling him _Dead Boy_."

            Looking around at everybody and the room, Willow finally commented after a moments silence, "Wow, we got really weird names, huh?"

            "What do you mean?" Xander asked.

            "Oh come on," Buffy answered for the redhead.  "Buffy, Willow, Xander, Spike, Angel, and _Cordelia_?  Not exactly common everyday names, like Betty, Jane, Joe, Will, Bill, etc.  Get what I, uh we mean?"  Willow smiled at the addition.

            Scrunching his face in thought, Xander finally nodded, conceding the point.  "Yeah, I see what ya mean.  But…where are we?" he asked in a whisper.  The three women smiled at him and Beverly repeated her answer, and then asked him if he was feeling any pains or discomforts.  He replied to the negative.

            Xander then moved over to where the other conscious strangers were standing, if only to be close to other people.  "So, uhm what do we do now?" he asked.  At Buffy and Willow's confused stares, he continued.  "I mean, obviously we came through that phenomenon for some reason.  And if we can't remember what it was, then…"  The two girls nodded, understanding.

            Fortunately, Beverly came to the rescue.  "Don't worry too much.  I'm sure that your memories will come back on their own.  And this isn't the first case of amnesia that I've cured I'll have you know.  If you'd be willing to take the risk, there's a procedure where I can sort of jumpstart your neural interface.  It's not something I'd suggest trying immediately, but if your memories don't return within a month, then I guess we could try it."

            "Are…are you suggesting surgery?" Buffy asked, suddenly sounding and feeling very afraid.

            Beverly, noting the change, nodded and answered, "In a way.  It's completely non-invasive and I'm very good at my work.  But like I said, it's not something to consider just yet.  Your memories will more than likely return on their own."

            Buffy nodded, slightly comforted by the sentiment, but still she felt very apprehensive about the subject.  Enough that she felt the need to voice her fear.  "I-I don't know why, but-but the thought of…surgery.  I don't know.  It just gives me…a very bad feeling."

            Feeling sympathy for her patient, Beverly placed her hand gently on the blonde's shoulder and tried to convey as much of that sympathy for her as was possible.  Buffy nodded in thanks.

            "Well, like I said, it's only if you feel the procedure would be absolutely necessary, and I just thought you would want to be aware of all the options.  And it's even more likely, that as you go on you'll regain your memories naturally." Beverly explained.

            All of them took a deep sigh of relief when they understood what the doctor was suggesting.  At that moment, another of the strangers decided to wake up.  The girl with neck-length brown hair with blond highlights.  Moaning as she sat up, slowly, Cordelia took one look around the room before focusing on the dark haired gentleman still laying on one of the beds.

            "Angel!" she shouted and ran over to him.  She started to check for a pulse and what not before she stood straight and slapped her forehead.  "Oh, duh, you don't have a pulse and you don't breath," she muttered to herself.  "Angel!  Angel!" she tried shouting in his ear.  It did the trick as the next moment Angel too was moaning and muttering, "All right, all right!  I'm awake Cordy!"

            "Oh thank god," the young woman said in relief as she helped the vampire to a sitting position.

            "Hey Cordy," Xander then greeted.  "Hey Deadboy."

            Looking up in surprise, the two turned to stare at the quartet or Buffy, Willow, Xander, and the doctor.  "Xander," they both responded quietly.

            "What's with the 'Deadboy' stuff Xander?  I thought you said his name was Angel, and from the way that…uh, Cordelia?, woke up I'd say that it is Angel, not Deadboy.  So what's with the Deadboy stuff?" Buffy asked.

            "Like I said, I just like calling him that," Xander responded after some thought.

            Angel, now upright and standing, came over with Cordelia to stand by the congregating group.  So it would only be natural for Spike to wake up then.  But his wake up call came a bit different than for the others.

            Rolling over, and yawning a bit, (however unnecessarily) Spike found himself in the next instant on the floor with pain running over his body.  These beds weren't made for a lot of toss and turn.  Pushing himself to his knees, Spike cursed, "Bloody Hell!"

            "Here we go," Xander muttered to himself, before realizing that he was probably the only one that remembered what Spike was like.

            Slowly getting to his knees, and then his feet, Spike was cursing every second that he could as he worked his body, finding it fully, more or less, functional.  Then he took a look around.  As soon as his eyes laid on Buffy, his mouth started spewing words before he even realized he was talking.

            "Hey Slayer.  Nice jammies" he snickered.  "What is this, some kind of white hat slumber party?"  Then he kept turning and saw Angel and Cordelia.  "Oh bloody hell!  That's all I need, the great Poof to ruin my day, and life, once again!"

            "Um…dude?  Uh, Spike?  Right?" Buffy started, turning to Xander for confirmation.  He nodded.  "We've all kind of lost most of our memories.  And I don't think the nice guards with their gun-thingies appreciate your swearing.  And my name is Buffy.  Or so I'm told."

            "Right Slayer and I'm…" Spike didn't finish talking as he turned and saw the security team eyeing him like a lion sizing up a gazelle.  Gulping, Spike nodded and put his hands up in the universal sign of peace and "I give up!"  Then he backed up and sat down on the bio-bed he had just fallen off of.

            "I told you, my name is Buffy!" the self-acclaimed shouted.

            "Right Slayer," Spike said absently, still staring fearfully at the guards.  Buffy's face then contorted in a mask of rage that the Doctor couldn't imagine ever being on the small young woman's face ever.

            Surprising everyone, by how quickly she did it just as much as what she did, Buffy jumped over the three bio-beds separating her and Spike, kicked him in the back while mid-flight, which forced him off his and into the next bio-bed, possibly causing internal damage, before landing where he had been standing less than a second ago.  Not letting up on him for a second, Buffy grabbed him by the back of his neck, slammed him with all her might head first onto the bed three times before twisting him around and slamming him back, hard, against the wall.  She then took him by the neck and lifted until his feet were no longer on the ground.

            "I said," her voice deathly quiet, "My name is _Buffy_!" she ended in a shout.

            Fear evident in his eyes, Spike hesitantly moved his restrained head up and down a couple times.  Then in a voice that was normal, which should have been choked, he apologized, "I-I-I'm sorry…Buffy.  It-it was a reflex.  I swear!  It'll never happen again, I promise!"

            Buffy squinted her eyes in mistrust, but slowly let him down and released him.

            "Lucky thing we're in a hospital," she commented, backing up.  Only when she turned around did she realize that the two had been surrounded by the security guards the second that she had him up against the wall.

            Gulping, Buffy immediately copied Spike's earlier motion of raising her hands.

            Beverly, seeing the situation needed to be diffused _now_, quickly walked over with her medical Tricorder, planning on helping Spike with whatever possible injuries he had developed from the provoked attack.  "Stand down!" the doctor ordered.  The officers obeyed, holstering their phasers, but they stayed nearby rather than returning to their posts.

            The doctor stepped closer, looking Buffy in the eye as she asked, "Buffy, are you in control now?"  Buffy nodded, looking more embarrassed than anything else.  "Yeah.  Look, I'm sorry.  I lost my temper.  He just pissed me off so much…!"  She paused, then grinned and turned to Xander.  "I guess I don't like him much either, huh?"  He returned the gentle grin.

            When Buffy saw that the redhead, Willow, was not standing next to him, she almost panicked, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.  Turning, Buffy saw it was Willow with concern in her eyes.  "Are you OK Buffy?" she asked in a timid voice.  Buffy nodded.

            "Well you're very lucky Mr. Spike," Beverly was saying, "Nothing broken, and as near as I can tell your trachea and vocal cords aren't damaged in any way either.  There's just one problem that I can see as far as this scan shows."

            "Hey, I didn't kill him!" Buffy protested.  "And I wasn't going to.  I just didn't like it when he called me that name."

            "What?  Slayer?" Willow supplied.

            Buffy nodded.  "I don't know why, but I just didn't like it."

            "Oh, as near as I can tell Buffy, you didn't cause this…glitch I'm reading." Beverly allayed once again.  She turned back to Spike and blatantly accused, "You aren't breathing!"

            Spike snorted and sat back down on the closest bed.  "Ofcourse I'm not breathing.  I don't breathe!  I don't have a pulse either!  Wanna check?"  Beverly, totally confused by this, just shook her head and stepped back and joined the other strangers.  "Bloody git, and the name is Spike, no mister, just _Spike_!" Spike cursed.

            "Be nice Spike," Buffy ordered.  "The doctor was just trying to help.  You don't have to be all grouchy about it you know!"

            "Yeah right Slay-" he cut off as he caught the threatening look she glared his way, as well as the subtle tensing of the surrounding guards.  "Buffy." He finished, smiling friendly.  He looked at the doctor and repeated, "I'm sorry doctor.  I hope you'll accept my sincerest apologies."  She nodded in kind.

            "See, told you I wasn't gonna kill him.  Can't choke someone who can't breathe," Buffy added.

            Spike rolled his eyes.  "Like you knew!" he accused.  "I did so know!  I also know that I really don't like you!"  "Yeah, well, the feeling is entirely mutual!"  "Good!" Buffy stuck her tongue out at him.

            A mask of rage, similar to the one Buffy had gotten before she had attacked him, crossed Spike's features.  Before anyone could react, let alone warn Buffy, Spike was up and shoved, hard, the blonde woman to the floor.  And again, before anybody could do or say a thing, Spike screamed out in unknowing agony, grasping his head and fell to the floor himself.

            Beverly was beside him in an instant, wondering if the whole non-breathing thing had become a serious issue.  Brain hemorrhaging, seizure, heart attack, cerebral synaptic failure, a dozen scenarios ran through the Chief Medical Officer's mind as she scanned her patient.  Yet before she could determine anything, Spike sat up again, not in any pain whatsoever.

            "What the bloody hell was that?" he asked, in shock.

            Buffy, standing up, looked at him in confusion and mild sympathy.  As much as she didn't like the man before her, she had seen what pushing her had done to him, and she didn't want to be the cause to it anymore.  "I-I didn't do anything.  I swear."

            It just so happened that at that moment, the Captain and the Counselor of the Enterprise stepped into Sickbay.  Seeing the security guards, he ordered them, "Stand down, and return to your posts."  They returned to their various positions around the Sickbay, but none left.

            Comfortable with that, Picard then turned to his latest…"guests" would be the proper term he assumed.


	4. Chapter 3, So what now?

_Chapter 3:_

            "Captain," the doctor greeted the CEO neutrally.  That one word caught the attention of half the "guests" currently awake.  Buffy, Willow, Cordelia, and Xander all cast a single glance at the redhead doctor, the girls staring a little longer.  Then they all shared a grin along with the thought, _'The doc likes him.'_

            "Doctor," the Captain greeted back in the same tone, though his eye held a spark along with it.  _'And he knows it,'_ they all realized, their grins growing some.

            The bald white man, with a red collar in his uniform, and more little pieces of metal than anybody else in the room had on theirs, turned to the strangers, noting Spike's position on the floor and how Cordelia was hovering about Angel.  After giving them the glance over, he turned back to the doctor and asked in a quieter tone, though they all could still hear him, "How are our 'guests' doing?"

            Turning around, and noticing Spike, the doctor helped him to his feet, which he accepted, too stunned to put up an argument, and replied in a conversational tone, "See for yourself.  Every one of them is fit.  The only problem is that they all have varying cases of amnesia.  However, Xander here seems to remember the most, particularly everybody's names."

            Xander, who was still standing beside the bed Willow was sitting on once again, grinned and waved casually at the commanding officer.  In response the Captain merely nodded with a grin.  "And?  Have you discovered where they might have come from?"

            The Doctor let out a rather long exasperated sigh, as though used to this man asking for the impossible, which he usually did.  "No.  By every means that I can think of, _every_thing says that these people are from _this_ time, _this_ universe, and might have even been born on _this_ ship!  Whatever it was that deposited them in Engineering affected them so that there was no leftover radiation of any sort left in their bodies and that their vibrational sequences are identical to ours.  For all I know they could be from the past or the future, but there's no trace of chronometric radiation.  I'm sorry Captain."

            "That's all right Doctor," the Captain consoled as he turned to the patients.

            "I am Captain Jean Luc Picard, commanding officer of the _Enterprise_.  Normally I'd say this before you'd have found your way to Sickbay, but welcome aboard," the Captain introduced himself kindly.  Buffy then stepped forward and extended her hand, introducing their group.  "Hi Jean, uh, like the Doc said, we kind of don't remember much about anything, but I'm Buffy, Xander," she pointed at each as she introduced them, "and next to him sitting on the bed is Willow.  Bleach head here is Spike, and over there is Angel, the guy on the bed, and next to him is Cordelia."

            "Hey!  I take offense at that remark, _Slayer_" Spike interrupted.

            Buffy lost her smile and turned back to the unaware vampire.  The Security officers, and Beverly unconsciously all tensed and Spike just stared back at her.  She took three steps to put herself directly in front of, though he was taller, Spike and glared hard at him.  With a sincere voice she apologized, "I'm sorry Spike.  I apologize for calling you a Bleach head."  He smiled thinking himself a victory.  Buffy added, "Why don't you spank me, I've been bad.  Oops, I forgot, you can't hurt humans, can you?"

            Spike scowled and audibly growled, sounding like some wild beast.  Buffy just giggled and stepped back grinning.

            "Wait a second," Angel suddenly shouted, jumping up on the bed.  "Just wait a second here, what is going on here?  What's happened and where the hell are we?  We aren't in hell are we?"

            "Oh, right, Angel and Cordelia haven't heard the story yet," Buffy mumbled, turning to Beverly.

            The Medical Officer grinned at the young blonde and turned to the pair on the far bio-bed.  "My apologies.  My name is Doctor Beverly Crusher.  I'm the chief medical officer, and this rather intimidating gentleman," several of the nurses and the Counselor chuckled slightly, "Is the Commanding Officer, as he introduced Captain Jean Luc Picard.  You are currently in our Sickbay; it's sort of out onboard hospital.  You're on a starship, in a rather remote region of space."

            The three that had awoken since the information had last been spoken all shared a look with the others of their group.  "Great, that's real great, who are the rest of you people?" Angel spoke confused.

            Stares and glares were passed back and forth between just about everybody in the room, but Cordelia put a stop to it by slamming the flat of her hand against the back of the man's skull.  "Owww!" Angel yelled as Cordelia's hand connected with the back of his head.

            "Angel, I swear, sometimes you can be so stupid," Cordelia put down as she stood next to him.

            Angel turned and glared at her.  "And I suppose that _you _know Cordy?"

            "Ofcourse I do," Cordelia answered automatically, trying not to look anybody in the eye.

            Everybody in the room, guests, the Doctor, the Captain, the Counselor, and even the nurses and security officers glared at her, not for a second believing that she was anything but lying.  "Yuh hunh," Buffy grunted.

            Buffy came over to Angel, making sure the Doctor was with her, planning to explain what little they had figured out so far.  What nobody could have expected was for Angel's eyes to go glassy the moment they rested on Buffy and for him to get a sort of semi-sappy look on his face as he breathed out, "Buffy"

            "Yeah, and you're Angel.  Xander fortunately remembered everyone's names.  How about you, do you remember much, besides names that is?" Buffy asked.

            Sitting down and furrowing his brow in concentration, Angel sat still for several moments before looking up and into the blond's hazel eyes.  "I'm sorry.  I…I don't really remember anything.  I thought…I thought that I was remembering something…or maybe someone when I saw you…but now…nothing.  I'm sorry."

            "It's all right," the Doctor comforted.  "As I've told Buffy and the others, I expect your memories to come back on their own.  Don't force anything, just let it come on its own."

            Angel turned to the latest arrivals, Captain Picard and Counselor Troi.  "Do I know you?" he asked the three officers, genuinely curious.  Deanna, sensing that this was her area of expertise, stepped forward with a gentle smile on her face.  "No.   But these other people arrived with you out of the…portal in Engineering, and a few of _them_ even know your name.  Don't worry though, we'll do everything we can to help you." The Counselor promised.

            Angel just nodded, while they all, except Spike, felt a measure of relief and trust in them.

            Jean-Luc finally, after an hour or so more of question and answer, managed to drag the Doctor away from her latest charges long enough to actually ask about them.  "Well Doctor?  Aside from the obvious, what can you tell me?"

            Beverly resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her superior officer.  "I'm sorry to say Captain, that the obvious is all I know at this point in time.  An hour ago I was ready to ship Angel and Spike off to the morgue, except I kept detecting brain activity.  We spent I don't know how long trying to revive them, and all that did was the same as if I were doing it to a _real_ corpse.  Finally, since their brain functions weren't anywhere near the danger zone, I just let them wait in here with their "friends" planning that at the very least they could identify them when they woke up, or could at least tell me how to properly resuscitate their vitals.  And instead, they wake up just like the rest of them."

            "What I find strange is the _level_ of amnesia they all have.  Xander and Cordelia's seem to be the least, while Buffy and Angels' the worst.  And then there was what Buffy _did_…"

            "What exactly did happen Doctor?" he asked, seeing that whatever the blond girl had done, it confused the hell out of Beverly.

            The auburn haired doctor shrugged her shoulders.  She told him of when Buffy just woke up and then the fight with Spike just before he had come in.  "When she first woke up, she was scared, as anybody would be if they woke up in a completely unfamiliar place with nobody you knew around you.  She started to panic; I tried to calm her down.  Then, while she was still lying on the bio-bed, she _threw_ me completely across the room!  I managed to calm the guards after that, enough for Buffy herself to calm down as well.  Then there was a tiny incident with Spike just before you came in."

            "What kind of…_incident_?" Jean-Luc couldn't stop himself from asking.

            Looking rather sheepish, Beverly sighed as she explained, "Spike had just woken up, not too comfortably I might add.  He ended up rolling off the bed.  Then he kept calling Buffy… "_Slayer_" and she was very adamant that she wanted to be called nothing but Buffy.  When he persisted, she literally leaped over the four bio-beds separating them, knocks him into the next bed, and lifts him up off the ground by a chokehold around his neck!  Amazingly enough, Spike wasn't hurt, except his pride ofcourse."

            "Doctor, are you positive?" the Captain asked skeptically.  "What you're saying that…_girl_ was doing is completely impossible.  No human could jump that far with such little maneuvering space, and she's smaller than even Deanna.  She couldn't be strong enough to throw anybody, let alone a taller and physically larger woman across a room."

            "That's what I mean!" Beverly insisted.  Curious, Jean-Luc asked her to continue with his expression.  "Jean-Luc, this girl has obviously been the result of some major genetic manipulation.  But I never heard of the Daystrom Institute being able to enhance anybody the way this girl has been.  Which leaves me with very few other options.  Maybe if I can find out exactly what was done to her, and what keeps Angel and Spike, relatively, alive, then maybe I can find out where they come from.  Get some answers for this latest mystery."

            Jean-Luc was the model of tense making a tough decision before he finally nodded.  "Find out what you can, Doctor.  I heard that Buffy isn't too fond of hospitals or surgery though, so keep that in mind when you're doing your scans.  And ofcourse, don't force them if they don't want to.  I won't violate anyone's personal rights just to get an answer to a mystery that hopefully does not involve danger to my ship."

            "Ofcourse Captain," Beverly added automatically, just as appalled as he was of the thought of violating anyone's personal rights just to run a simple scan.  Buffy's fears she also kept in mind.

            Meanwhile, over by the patients, Deanna was introducing herself to the new arrivals.  "How are you all feeling?  Besides annoyed," Deanna asked, looking pointedly at Spike, who was grouching in a corner.

            "I feel fine, confused, curious, but fine," Willow answered the exotic dark-haired woman.

            "I'm much better now that you're here," Xander answered, a goofy grin on his face.

            Cordelia and Buffy both snorted and rolled their eyes at his obvious line.  Deanna just smiled and winked at him.  Xander sat down with a thud, his brain short-circuiting.  Buffy noticed this, but Cordelia was still preoccupied with annoying Angel.

            "Are you sure you're fine Angel, I mean if you need me to warm up some pig's blood for you…" she was saying.

            Angel kept trying to shrug off the girl's affections, but her recent statement froze him on his spot, as well as shocked a couple of the others within range of her voice.  "Wh-what?  Why would I want pig's blood?" Angel stuttered, a frightened look in his eyes.  He was afraid the girl that attached herself to his arm was quite legally insane.

            "Well duh!" Cordelia exclaimed rather loudly.  "You're a vampire!  What else would you eat?  Other than human's blood, but that would mean that you would have to attack somebody to get their blood, and you aren't like that anymore since you got your soul and all and…"

            "What's a vampire?" both Buffy and Angel asked, interrupting the brunette.

            Cordelia and Xander looked up and glared at their respective counterparts, (Cordy's on '_Angel_' and Xander's on '_BtVS_'), and mirrored one another's face of confusion.  Fortunately, they were saved from any embarrassing stuttering or confusing statements, by Spike who did it for them.

            "Oh come on!" he exclaimed.

            Deanna decided to interrupt before anybody lost his or her temper again.  "Now I'm sure that…"

            It was not to be as Spike interrupted her, "You, you bloody poof, are a vampire.  And so am I!  I'm the Big Bad, I'm _EVIL!_  And like the git said, you've got your bleedin' soul so you've been on the "good guys" side for over a hundred years now.  We drink blood mate, we're allergic to sunlight in the sense that we burst into flame, and as an added bonus we can go all 'Grrrrr'!"  And with that, his facial features shifted to something that might at some point be described as "demonic".

            His forehead had stooped forward some, the eyebrows disappearing, and ridges all along it to increase in the ugliness factor.  His teeth became noticeably sharper, and his lips withdrawn to easily display them.  His eyes shifted to an inhuman yellow that glowed with malcontent, and the entire package made him look like some primitive version of a human evolution that was more animal than human.  Most of the people looking at him as he changed his face jumped back in fear.

            Buffy's eyes widened as she felt a tremble of familiarity in the back of her mind with the face she was staring at.  It was a face that both scared, and deeply annoyed her.  It was the source of many nightmares and far many more scream filled nights.

            Deanna's attention suddenly shifted fully to Buffy.  She felt an unparalleled fear beginning to take shape in the girl's mind.  If she wasn't frozen with shock staring at Spike's new face, Deanna imagined that she might actually be on the floor screaming in terror.

            "Buffy?" she tentatively approached the blond and placed her hand on the youth's shoulder.

            The moment that tactile contact was achieved, both Slayer and Empath felt something.  The Counselor knew almost instinctually what it was, being half-betazoid, a telepathic species.  Buffy couldn't even begin to fathom what was happening, but still…  A memory of something similar once.  But it was connected to great pain.  A great deal of pain.

            A psychic link had formed between the two strangers.  Buffy didn't know what to do, she was so scared and emotionally tense.  Deanna tried to reach the other woman's mind, but Buffy wasn't listening to her, or didn't know how to listen.

            _'Buffy!  Buffy!  You have to calm down!'_ Deanna kept urging through the new link that was unlike anything she had ever experienced before.  It was primal, instinctual, and a force of such power that Deanna, had it not been for her experience in these types of situations before, would have been overwhelmed that she'd have gone insane.

            Buffy was silent.  She kept hearing things and seeing stranger things, none of it with her eyes or ears though.  Yet one voice kept breaking through.  _'Buffy!  Buffy!'_ it sounded like three different voices fused into one.  Two female, one male.  The male aspect sounded more…proper.  English, she realized.  He had an English accent, not too unlike Captain Picard.  The two female voices were nothing like each other.  One…one was panicked, but unaccented and possibly deeper than the other.  That other sounded remarkably like Counselor Troi.

            _'What's happening to me?'_ Buffy asked the voice.  She got three different answers from the voices.

            _'You're the Slayer, the Chosen One,'_ the male voice answered.

            _'Buffy, you've got to take care of your sister,'_ the first female voice answered.

            _'Buffy!  It's a psychic link, you have to calm down.  I can help you!'_ the Counselor's voice answered.

            _'What?  I-I don't understand…'_ Buffy responded.  Again the three voices gave her different answers.

            _'You are the Slayer, it is your destiny,'_

            _'Buffy, I love you, but…sometimes I don't understand you,'_

            _'I don't understand it either Buffy, but right now it is _vital_ that you calm down,'_

            Buffy was confused.  But something the first voice said to her struck a deep chord of memory in her heart.  _'Destiny…?'_ she asked it.  They all answered again.

            _'I'm very proud of you Buffy,'_

_            'Promise me, if anything happens to me, you'll take care of your sister!'_

_            'Destiny?  Buffy, what are you talking about, what's happening?'_

            This time Buffy answered the second voice in her mind, _'Sister?  I…I have a sister?  But why don't I remember her?'_

            _'We can never tell her she is the Key,'_

_            'I know she's not my flesh Buffy, but I know, I _know_, that she is my little girl.  You have to protect her!'_

_            'Sister!  Buffy, you're not making any sense!  Is Willow your sister?'_

            This time, before Buffy could respond, the other two voices answered the third voice.

            _'Glory must never get the Key,'_

_            'If you walk out of this house, don't you _ever_ come back again, do you hear me?'_

            _'Buffy?  Can you hear me?  Buffy, please?'_

            All of a sudden, both Buffy and Deanna were assaulted with images that neither understood.  An older gentleman dressed in rather stiff looking clothes made mostly of tweed.  The next was of a pale sickly looking woman lying in a hospital bed with her head bandaged, then the same woman lying dead on a couch, her eyes glassy open.  The final image was of a youthful teenage girl, approximately fifteen years old, with long dirty blond hair that reached past her shoulders.  Her eyes were a strange, almost ethereal green color than neither woman could identify.  Then it all ended when Buffy opened her eyes.

            _'What the hell just happened?'_ Buffy thought to herself, but Deanna still heard it.

            _'I'm not sure.  When I touched you, somehow a psychic link formed and then you started muttering about different things.  Then we…I saw strange images of people.  Were those people you knew?'_ Deanna asked telepathically.

            _'I…I'm not sure.  I think so.  I remember hearing voices.  Three of them.  I think the man in tweed, then the woman, and your voice.  All exactly as I'm hearing yours now.  What's happening Deanna?'_ Buffy asked, her fear starting to rise again.

            _'It's going to be all right Buffy, just stay calm,' _the Counselor tried to assuage.  _'I think one of your memories just unlocked.  I'm a Betazoid Buffy, well a half-betazoid.  Betazoids are a telepathic species, that means that we have the power to communicate with our thoughts just as easily, and sometimes easier, than with words.  But I'm curious as to how you managed to form this link.'_

            Buffy decided that she'd had enough of the thought-speak for a time and moved from the gentle hand Troi had on her shoulder.  "I don't know," she answered verbally.

            "It's all right Buffy," Deanna comforted.  "Why don't you sit down, I think you need to rest for a minute or so."

            "What, get yourself worked up over seein' me like this, huh Slayer?" Spike asked, his vampire face still on.

            Buffy shot a glare of star plasma at the bleached blond before taking a seat on the bed next to Willow.  The Counselor, seeing that Buffy was no longer panicking, and in fact was much calmer next to Willow, went over to the Captain and Beverly, who had looked over at Spike's outburst.

            "What is it Counselor?" Jean-Luc asked as the raven beauty came over.

            "I'm not entirely sure Captain," she began, still a little off-balance from her encounter with Buffy.  "And you may not believe this, but Buffy is a telepath.  Well, she may not be a full telepath, but when I touched her, a psychic link formed between us, and a memory unlocked while we were connected."

            "Are you sure?" both Doctor and Captain asked at the same instant.  Deanna just nodded.

            "Are you all right Counselor?" the Captain asked.

            She nodded and took a deep breath.  "Yes I'm fine, it was just a bit overwhelming.  Buffy's abilities, whatever they may be or whatever her potential may turn out to be, are extremely untamed.  The raw force of her thoughts and her powers reaching out were more instinctual, almost primal, than anything else I've ever experienced.  It's not the amount of power she has or uses, just the nature of it.  I may be able to help her fully understand it, but only with a great deal of work, and ofcourse with her help.  I'll ask her later.  Right now I think they're all just really anxious to get their memories back and find out where they came from.  Though none of them hold a sense of urgency about anything."

            "Well that's good I suppose," Beverly put in, "It means that there's nothing so important for them to be doing that they would unconsciously feel a need to do it."

            "There's something else.  While Buffy was trying to orient herself, she said that she heard two other thought-voices other than my own.  She also said something about a sister.  Could…"

            "No," Beverly put down right away, "I already checked their DNA when they came in.  None of them are related to one another.  At least not biologically.  But…maybe they were raised as brothers and sisters?  Adopted by one parent?"

            "I'm not sure.  I…I did see images of a man and woman.  And a girl.  About fifteen.  She might have been what Buffy and the voices were talking about.  I'll see if I can get the computer to recreate the faces of the people I saw in Buffy's mind.  She might be able to fill in any gaps and it might jog some memories," Deanna suggested.

            The Captain immediately nodded his head.  "Get on it Counselor.  As with our guests, I'd like some answers as soon as possible.  In the meantime, Doctor, do you thinks it's safe to release them to their quarters?"

            "Of course Captain, though I'd like to keep Angel and Spike here a bit longer, see if I can fully determine differences in their bodies to ours."  Beverly answered.

            The Captain nodded and started to turn towards the door.  "Make it so," and he left.

TBC…


	5. Chapter 4, So THAT's what happened to Da...

_Chapter 4:_

            An hour or so later, Q1 and Q2a were talking a walk through the ship, out of phase with the inhabitants so they would not be seen or questioned about their presence.  Q1 was still curious how the elder Q could know the confused blonde girl that had been in the portal, but he was keeping his questions to himself for the moment.  They passed the arboretum for the second time in the twenty seconds it took them to go from end to end of this tiny ship, then Q2a suddenly stopped and just stood there in the garden.

            Q1 was halfway to Astro Metrics before he noticed and turned back.

            "Is something wrong Q?" he asked the elder.

            Q2a just shook his head and then taking a more human like appearance, but still phased out, knelt and took a deep breath of the scents of the flowers beneath his nostrils.  "Nothing's wrong Q," he whispered huskily.  "I was just remembering my teacher, Quinn.  I miss him Q."

            Q1 nodded, remembering the anarchist Q that had kept wanting to kill himself, and finally succeeded when the Federation starship _Voyager_ had released him and granted him asylum.  Q1 had met him once, but didn't know him well enough to call him a friend.  "If it's worth anything Q, I'm sorry," he offered sympathetically.

            Q2a just nodded back.

            "We never stop and smell the roses anymore Q.  It's going to be the Continuum's undoing unless we learn to see the universe with the same enthusiasm that we did when we first started out.  We need to spend more time appreciating everything, and I mean _everything_ if we want to survive.  The Civil War was only a catalyst point.  There will be others, mark my words Q, there will be others."

            Q1 looked confusedly at the elder.  "What in all the omniverse are you talking about Q?" he near shrieked.

            Q2a looked at him and just smiled.  "You'll see.  I'm sorry Q, but I'm going back to my family," Q2a apologized.  "I might bring them by later, but if you want to stay and watch anything more, you have my permission to do so, but you are not to interfere.  The moment my dear Jean Luc met those six, he adopted them into his crew, thereby putting them under the same rule as Jean Luc himself.  Do you understand me?"

            Q1 nodded, completely baffled by Q2a's behavior.  "I understand Q."

            And with that, both Q's faded from the existence near the _Enterprise_ the elder Q going back to the Continuum, while Q1 decided to hang out around and see what turned out with the results from his dissolved portal.

            On the Port side of the ship on Deck 13, Deanna Troi, Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Cordelia were being led to their new quarters.  Cordelia had put up some amount of fuss, insisting that she had to stay by Angel's side, but Buffy, Angel, and Counselor Troi had assured her that both she and Angel would be safe, particularly her.

            Willow and Xander however had put up little fuss and in fact readily agreed to getting better accommodations than Sickbay could provide.  Deanna had then offered to freely show them to the assigned rooms, which were held for visitors or people that just showed up on the ship from time to time, and Buffy accepted for the group.

            "Buffy?" Willow asked in a shy voice.  "Are you OK?  Ever since Spike changed his face you've been kind of quiet?  Is there anything wrong?"

            "No Will, I'm fine," Buffy immediately answered.

            Deanna briefly looked back to the blonde, but said nothing.  She decided to try something, and to show Buffy that she shouldn't hide things from those that genuinely cared for her, like these two did.

            _'That's not very nice, Buffy,'_ she thought to her in a way that she normally only had to do when her mother was visiting.

            Buffy faltered in her steps a little, but kept walking, her face showing her shock at the sudden communication.  Willow almost instantly started panicking.  Xander was just offering himself for emotional support, but remaining quiet.

            "Buffy?  Omigod!!  Buffy!  I-are you all right?  Do we need to go back to Sickbay?  Do we need to get help?  Buffy are you sick?  Are you hurt?  Buffy please tell…" Willow was babbling.

            Buffy stopped her by putting her hands on the redhead's shoulders.  "Will!  Willow!  Calm down!  I'm fine!  I just tripped over my own feet.  I mean, I've been lying down now for how many hours?  Really, I'm fine Willow," she comforted.

            "Oh, OK.  Well as long as you're OK, Buffy."  Willow calmed.  Buffy smiled and they continued on their way.

            _'OK, now _THAT_ was not nice!'_ Buffy thought back at Deanna, who was surprised to hear it since she and Buffy were no longer touching.

            _'Buffy, how long have you been telepathic?'_ Deanna asked while keeping her face and body focused on directing them to Xander's quarters.

            Buffy's face however showed her confusion at Deanna's message.  _'What's telepathic?'_

            Deanna could almost burst out in laughter.  _'Telepathy, mind-to-mind communication, like what we're doing right now.  How long have you been a telepath?'_

            Buffy shrugged and didn't answer for several minutes.  Finally, _'I'm really not sure.  I…think that I know what you're talking about…and I remember…pain associated with that memory.  As for what we're doing right now, it just kind of came natural the moment you touched me.  Maybe…maybe the doc can explain it later.  Right now I _know_ we all want sleep.'_

            Deanna giggled slightly as she felt the earnestness behind that request and let go of her connection to Buffy for the moment.  They soon came to Xander's quarters, where the Counselor stopped them and then pressed several buttons on the little touch pad by the door.

            Curious, Buffy asked aloud, "What's that?"

            Surprised, Deanna turned as the doors opened and asked back, "What's what?"

            Buffy pointed at the touch pad and shrugged.  Deanna looked and could barely stop herself from bursting out in laughter.  "It's just a control pad, for the door.  These quarters are normally never in use, so I had to input my access code in order to open the door.  But don't worry, once we have them assigned to you in the computer, all you have to do is walk up to the door, and the sensors will recognize you and let you in.  Now come on in, I'll show you around Xander, since this is your place now." The Counselor smiled as she said this.

            Xander, a stunned look on his face, walked stiffly into the quarters and near-fainted as he got a good look inside.

            It was, in Counselor Troi's eyes, completely modern and near state-of-the-art.  In the four strangers' eyes, it was something out of a science fiction nerd's wet dream.  The force-field enhanced windows showed a completely unobstructed view of the starscape outside the ship, proving once and for all that they were indeed on a starship.  The furniture was smooth, comfortable looking, inviting, and mostly gray.  There were two couches, one beneath the windows, and another facing them against the opposite wall.  A couple chairs and what might be defined as "recliners" but that was iffy.  And then there were two connecting rooms on either side of the "living room" if it could be called that.

            They all more or less shuffled inside, the Counselor smiling at the feelings of awe, amazement, and piqued curiosity coming from her companions.  "This is my place?" Xander asked, his amazement becoming tangible through his voice.  "I mean this whole…place is really _my_ place.  Not some place that you'll move me out of when I don't pay the rent or whatever.  My very own place?"

            Deanna couldn't help giggling as she smiled and answered Xander's ramblings, "Yes Xander, this is your very own 'place'.  And don't worry about paying us back or anything.  If you become a drain on ship's resources, my fiancée Commander Riker will be more than happy to jettison you."

            Xander froze stiffer than a duranium steel plate.  Buffy turned a harsh glare on the dark haired empath.  _'Now who's not being nice?'_ Buffy asked the same way that she had learned Deanna spoke to her in her mind.

Deanna just smiled brightly, and ignored Buffy's mental taunt and calmed Xander by adding, "I'm just kidding Xander.  Seriously though, until you want to give them up, these quarters are yours.  As for ship's resources, we're used to having a few extra passengers on board and having you six will hardly put a drain on power systems.  For right now Xander, I'm going to show Buffy, Willow, and Cordelia their quarters, which are just around the corner actually.  You can either stay here and explore your new home, or you can come with us to see where each of you will be staying.  Your choice."

Xander was kept from answering as he was exploring his quarters at this very moment, in the room off to the right from where the door is, which seemed to be a bedroom with a bathroom-like connection as well.  When he was done in there, he quickly ran across the way to the room to the left of the door, which looked like either a dining room, or had the potential to be another bedroom, but this one had a window in it.

After he finished his quick sweep, Xander dashed back into the living room where the ladies were waiting for his answer.  He gave it to them with little delay, "Oh, I'm definitely coming with.  Limits the random knocking on doors when there's a slumber party going on."

Willow groaned at that comment, while Buffy scrunched her face in confusion, and Cordelia just looked bored.  Deanna also looked a bit confused as she asked, "Slumber party?"

Xander nodded and explained as they exited his quarters.  "Yeah, you know.  Bunch of girls staying up most of the night in their PJs talking about food, boys, make-up, boys, their favorite movie star, boys, who they wanna marry, boys, and did I mention boys?  Oh, and in Willow's case other girls too."

"Xander!!" Willow screamed in the middle of the hallway.

Deanna looked even more confused.  "I'm not sure what you mean," she said as they stopped in front of Cordelia's quarters.

Xander shrugged again.  "Willow's kinda gay.  So instead of talking about the boy she wants to kiss, or kissed or all of the above, she'd be talkin' about a girl," Xander spurted out without thought.

Until Willow slapped him, hard, on the shoulder.  "Oww!" he shouted as the pain registered.  "What'd you do that for Will?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe you're blabbing out for the whole ship to hear things about my personal life that at the moment I might not remember!!" Willow screamed.

Xander felt a sudden stinging on the back of his head, causing him to scream out in pain again.  He turned around and saw Cordelia glaring dangerously at him.

"Way to go Lame-oid!  By the way, if you care to remember anything personal about me, not that I think you could, take that as warning to keep it to yourself.  My personal life, hell anybodies personal life is not to be blasted around like common gossip.  Unless I'm telling it."  And with that she walked into her quarters that Deanna had just unlocked.  The door closed behind her, and none felt like venturing to open it and face what was on the other side.

Shaking themselves from Cordy's tirade, the group continued on to Willow's quarters, which happened to be right next to Xander's, just in the other direction from Cordelia's.  Deanna then recalled what her line of questioning had been about.  "I think you misunderstood me Xander.  I wasn't talking about your comment on Willow, though I don't judge anyone on anything like that.  I've never heard the term 'slumber party'.  Is it a ritual that your culture observes?"

Xander burst out laughing at that last question, as did Willow.  Xander was shaking his head.  "Uh, no.  A slumber party is…well now that I think about it, I guess it is a ritual observed by our "culture."  It's when teenage girls get together with all of their friends of the female variety, and do what I said earlier.  Stay up late, talk, eat, watch TV or movies, and talk a whole lot more.  Maybe pull a prank phone call or two, and then eventually wear themselves down so much that they fall asleep.  What, you mean to tell me that you've never been to slash had a slumber party Counselor?"

Deanna smiled briefly, if not somewhat embarrassingly as she now recalled what Xander was describing from what she understood of Earth/human teenage habits.  "Please, call me Deanna," she asked, "And now that I think about it, I do know what you're talking about…and no, I've never had a slumber party.  At least not one like you've described."

"Really?" Buffy asked.  "What was the one you had like?"

Deanna stopped them.  She seemed to be gathering strength for some emotional trauma or memory.  "It was more of a hostage situation.  The Doctor and I, and two other crewmen, who I hope you get to meet, were taken prisoner during an away mission.  They held us in a cell together for several days.  So I guess you could say I've had a night with the girls, it just wasn't as pleasant."

Willow, frowning with empathy for the woman, said, "Well, maybe we should have our own slumber party.  One to undress old wounds as they say.  Hey!  Maybe we can get Beverly and the other two-crew persons to join in.  Then it'd really be fun!"

"Yeah, hey!  Maybe there'll be pillow fights too," Xander added enthusiastically.

Buffy rolled her eyes and shook her head.  "Xander, don't you remember, you said it yourself.  Only girls, no guys allowed, right?" Buffy asked, unsure of her observation.  Though Deanna seemed to be the only one who noticed.

Xander, looking beaten, snapped his fingers and said, "Shucks!" in defeat.  Willow just smiled knowingly and patted Xander's shoulder.  Deanna just giggled once more at the antics of these strange people.

They came up to Willow's quarters, and Deanna unlocked them releasing the room into Willow's care.  Willow wanted to stay with Buffy and find out where the blonde's quarters would be, but Buffy insisted that she wanted Deanna to show her alone, though she wouldn't mind it at all if either wanted to come by later.  Deanna told the other two youths that Buffy's quarters were actually just down the hall from Willow's quarters, separated only by hull and a Turbolift access.  After the brief and short argument, Xander went back to his quarters, Willow into hers, and Deanna led Buffy to the quarters assigned to her.

"Is something wrong Buffy?" Deanna finally asked as the two women entered the younger's living room.

Buffy sat down on the couch, which was identical to the ones in the others' rooms, and templed her fingers in front of her face.  Her brow was creased with concentration and her eyes shown her worry so well that Deanna didn't need her empathic abilities to tell her what Buffy was feeling.  Concerned, the Councilor sat down beside the girl and gently rested her hand on her shoulder.

"Buffy?" Deanna tried to reach the girl.

"I remember my mother," was all Buffy said.

Deanna started, feeling the pure emotion that Buffy was going through.  "Oh Buffy," she whispered in sympathy.  She sat down beside the blonde girl, waiting for Buffy to say what she had to say, not forcing anything.

            Meanwhile, back in Sickbay, something was happening inside of Data.  The energy bolt that had struck him through the destroyed replicator, while directed by the two Q, had very little to do with any of the recent events.  In fact, as would be found out much later, Data was actually constructed for the soul purpose of containing the energy that had remained from the portal in Engineering.  And that it was of little coincidence that he was at his stage of development at this juncture in time.

            Data's inner pathways were flooded with the strange energy that remained unidentifiable by the doctors or even Geordi's scans.  However none of it was in any way damaging the android.  In fact the opposite appeared to be true, Data's systems were in better status than they ever had been before.  The only problem was, he wasn't waking up.

            It was entirely understandable though.  Data is now the vessel, the body for an entity older than the universe itself, which has its own memories, its own personality, it's own person.  And after going from a biological body's few drops of blood, to tendrils of energy inside an android can be quite confusing, for any thing.

            Finally, after nearly twelve hours of stasis, "Dawn" was waking up, and with her, so was Data.

            _'Unnghhh,'_ Dawn moaned in thought as she fought opening her eyes to the bright light.  _'What?'_ she asked, _'Where am I?  What happened to me?  I…I don't remember…'_

            Data suddenly opened his eyes and sat straight on the bio-bed he had been placed on.

            "Data!" Beverly and Geordi both started, rushing to the upright android.

            "Are you all right, Data?" Crusher immediately asked.

            "Data?  How are you feeling?  Can you remember what happened?" Geordi asked.

            _'What?  What's happening?  Did I do that?  Who's talking to me?'_ Dawn was confused.

            Data turned his head at the stimulus of the doctor and engineer speaking to him.  He answered their questions rather monotone and machine-like.  "I am fine Doctor.  To my awareness, all my systems are functioning within acceptable parameters.  My memory files of what occurred and brought me to this location, however, are not accessible."

            "Data, is your emotion chip online?" Geordi asked curiously.

            Data tipped his head to the side in a very artificial way and answered, "Negative.  Diagnostics indicate that it is undamaged, yet offline at this moment."

            _'Hey, that tickles!'_ Dawn exclaimed in her mind as she felt a tingling sensation on the border of her consciousness.

            "Tell you what Data, why don't you just try activating the chip for a moment or two, just to guarantee that it's working all right.  Besides, I hate it when you talk like a machine," Geordi commented with a laugh in his voice.

            "Ofcourse Geordi," Data answered shortly and then closed his eyes.

            _'HEY!  What…what's going on?  What's happening to me?'_ Dawn screamed as she felt her entire aura of sensation and perception shift at the same moment.  Suddenly she wasn't just there in Data's body feeling and seeing and hearing what he felt, saw, and heard.  She _was_ Data, feeling personally every little thing in his body, from basic senses right down to the electrical charge that just carried along the current in her artificial body.  And she wasn't alone.

            _:I do not understand.  Who are you?  Why are you in my body?:_ Data's personality finally responded to Dawn's presence.

            _'Who am I?  Who are you?'_ she shouted back at the male voice that she recognized as the voice of this body.

            _:I am Lieutenant Commander Data of the starship Enterprise.  I am an android.  If I may ask, why have you possessed my body?:_ Data was sounding remarkably calm to Dawn's "ears".

            _'I…I haven't done anything!'_ she shouted back.  _'I, I don't really remember that much before waking up here in…_this_ body.  What happened to me?  Where…where's my real body?  What have you done to me!!??!'_

            Data could feel, yes _feel_, the torment racing through the being that he suddenly found sharing his body.  Yet he could also detect that at the moment, she (he could tell she was female, but not much more than that) did not control any of his motor functions, though she might have the capability, she obviously chose not to utilize them at the moment.

            Data opened _his_ eyes and looked at Geordi and the Doctor with a spark of personality that had not been there previously.  "Hello Geordi, hello Doctor," he greeted politely.  "If I may…how did I end up in Sickbay?"

            Geordi just smiled at his friend.  "Well, we were kind hoping you could tell us.  As for how you got here, the Captain and Commander Riker swung by your quarters and brought you here."

            Data's confusion shown on his face, but before he could respond, the female voice in his head interrupted him.  _'Hold on!  What's going on?  Who is this?  What is this place?  What's happening?'_ Dawn demanded.

            _:Can you access my memory files?:_ Data asked her shortly.

            _'Files?  Huh?  What…oh!  Memory!'_ Dawn exclaimed as she considered his request.

            In the next instant, Data felt Dawn accessing all of his memory files, much the same way he would, but at a far greater rate.  It did not seem to affect her however as she just got the answers to all of her questions seemingly all at once.  After she had finished, taking up three whole seconds to read all of his memories, she commented to him, _'Wow, you sure do know a whole lot, don't you?'_

            _:Yes, I suppose that I do.:_ Data answered her shortly.

            "Data?" Geordi spoke up when Data hadn't responded for several seconds longer than it took him to be just confused.

            Data, snapped out of his conversation with Dawn, looked up in surprise and continued his conversation with Geordi as though it hadn't ever been interrupted.  "What were the Captain and Commander Riker going to my quarters for?" he asked.

            "Well, as I understand it Data," Beverly Crusher began, "There were reports of a second power surge in your quarters.  They were already on their way here, and they stopped by your quarters to make sure everything was all right."

            Data's look of confusion returned.  "Why were they coming here already Doctor?  Was somebody injured?" Data naively asked.

            "Well sort of," Crusher continued.  "Apparently, at the same time that power surge occurred in your quarters, some…phenomenon happened in Engineering.  Nobody was hurt, thankfully, however we did get some new guests out of it.  Six humanoids, four of them actually human, and the other two…well they're calling themselves vampires."

            _'Vampires?'_ Dawn asked with fear in her "voice."

            Data paused in his speech as he internally addressed Dawn.  _:I take it that you are familiar with the species that the Doctor is referring too?:_ he asked.

            _'Uhm, yeah.  I mean, maybe.  I'm not sure right now.  My…mind I guess, is kinda foggy right now.  Can you ask her for their names.  Not the vampires, the humans.'_ Dawn requested.

            _:Ofcourse:_

            "Doctor, if I may ask, what are the humans names?"

            The Doctor and the Engineer shared a questioning look.  "Why do you want to know their names Data?" Geordi asked cautiously.

            Data did the best impression that an android could ever do of looking sheepish.  "Just curious is all," he replied in an equally sheepish tone.  Dawn couldn't help from commenting on it, _'Oh yeah, that was convincingly unsuspicious.'_

            Beverly however didn't really se a problem in it and answered the android without hesitation.  "From what they've been able to recall, their names are Xander, Cordelia, Willow, Angel, Spike, and Buffy."

            Data felt the instant change in his "guest's" emotional state as the Doctor listed the last two names.  Particularly the last one.  Where before she had been confused, frightened, but overall calm, she was now bordering on desperate panic, and an overwhelming desire to find this "Buffy."

            _'Buffy?'_ Dawn whimpered.  Then the panic set in.  _'BUFFY!!'_ she screamed in both hers and Data's mind.  When she screamed like that, Data's body couldn't help from jerking suddenly.

            "Data!" Geordi exclaimed.  "Are you all right?  What just happened?"

            "I am fine Geordi," Data answered as though nothing had happened.  "As I recall, I had gone down to my quarters to investigate the damage done to my quarters by an unknown power surge.  When I arrived, Spot immediately ran out of my quarters as I opened the doors, and I must say that I was relieved that she was all right.  Inside, I had discovered that somehow the power surge had caused my replicator to explode, destroying half of my quarters, and nearly all of my paintings.  Luckily, Spot was in my bedroom, so was safe from the explosion.  I had investigated and attempted to understand what could have caused the replicator to malfunction, yet there was not enough salvageable components remaining to properly investigate the cause.  I had turned to further investigate the damage to my quarters, when I heard a strange sound behind me, and then I woke up here."

            During his speech, Dawn was becoming more and more irrational.  _'Buffy!  Buffy!  BUFFY!  I have to get to Buffy!  I have to!  Please, I have to find Buffy!  BUFFY!'_ she kept screaming.

            _:Please, calm down:_ Data tried to speak with her, yet he found that she would not listen.

            _'No!  I-I have to find Buffy, have to get to Buffy!  Please!  Buffy!  BUFFY!!'_ Dawn kept screaming.

            At that point, Data's body jerked once more, and then began to convulse, as though the android were having a seizure.  "Data!!" both doctor and engineer screamed, trying to understand what was happening.  Beverly pulled out a Tricorder and began to scan Data, but the only thing even remotely out of place was an unidentifiable energy coursing throughout his entire infrastructure.  However what happened next, none of them could have expected.

            Data felt a tingling sensation, despite suddenly having no control over his body.  He looked down at the source, his right arm, and saw a strange green energy dancing all over the appendage.  As it continued to cover his entire right arm, the tingling sensation only got…worse.  Then, before their very eyes, Data's arm…_changed_!  It shifted from his normal masculine green-skinned arm to a peach-colored feminine and youthful looking arm.

            "That is…unexpected," Data commented as though looking at a science experiment rather than being in the middle of mass convulsions and looking at his arm change to something else entirely right before his very eyes.

            This time however, the changed didn't stop at his arm.  The tingling and the green energy quickly spread to the rest of his body.  First, his legs and his other arm, both changing to a more feminine and youthful appearance, followed by his torso, (where obviously the most noticeable changes took place), and finally, his head became shrouded in the green energy.

            Geordi shouted one last time as his best friend of who knows how many years now, began to _change_ right before his eyes.  Data's golden green skin changed instantly to the peach-soft human looking skin the rest of his body displayed, followed shortly by his gold eyes changing to a softer shade of hazel green, and last of all, Data's bone structure and his dark brown hair began to grown amazingly long and grew lighter in several strands.  In less than a single minute after Data's convulsing began, he had been transformed into a young woman, looking about fifteen years old, whose entire posture radiated panic and adrenaline.

            Before Beverly or Geordi could even react, the girl that had been Data stood straight and screamed at the top of her lungs, "BUFFY!!"

TBC…


	6. Chapter 5, Explanation time, and more fu...

_Chapter 5:_

            Dawn didn't know what had just happened, but she couldn't deny that something was different about her.  What's more, this sudden change in not only her appearance, but her perspective from being a voice in some guys head to being fully autonomous again only made her desire to find Buffy that much greater.

            _: Please, whoever you are, you must calm down:_ Data tried to urge her from his new perspective of being only a voice in _her_ head.

            _'No, have to find Buffy,'_ Dawn was repeating it like a mantra, over and over in her head.

            "Who are you?  What the hell just happened?  What did you do to Data?" Beverly accused, unconsciously backing away from the young girl/android beside Geordi.

            Dawn instantly focused on the Doctor.  "I…I don't know," she said in a whining, panicky voice.  "I-I, I have to get to Buffy.  I have to find Buffy.  Please, where's Buffy?"

            "She was assigned some quarters after she was released from Sickbay," the doctor said in light calming tones.  "We'll call her down here immediately.  Just please try to remain calm.  I want to understand, but I'll need your help and cooperation.  What have you done with Data?"

            Dawn just shook her head, backing up against the bed that Data had been lying on just minutes before.  "I…I-I-I, I don't know what you're talking about.  I haven't _done_ anything!  I have to find Buffy.  Please, please, I need to see my sister." Dawn pleaded, tears almost forming at her eyes with the words.

            "Sister?" Beverly asked, unbelieving.

            "Sister?" Geordi asked, disbelieving.

            _: Sister?:_ Data asked curiously.

            Dawn rolled her eyes.  "Yes, _sister_!  Now where is she?" Dawn shouted now that her fear was starting to turn into anger at their patronizing of her.

            _'Just because I'm young does _not_ mean that they can patronize me like that!'_ Dawn thought at Data.

            _: I must concur.  Though humans often tend to lead that age conveys wisdom and therefore highly underestimate even the intelligence of most youth…:_ Data began to lecture.

            Unconsciously, Dawn thought and said the next words aloud.  "Data, not now!"

            "You can speak with Data!  Let him talk!" Geordi immediately demanded.

            Dawn frowned at him and repeated, "Where is Buffy?"

            _: You know, even if the doctor and Geordi did know, it is possible that she may move to another location while you are traversing there, so I think it would be best if you just waited here while the doctor brings her to Sickbay.  At most you would have to wait…:_ Data pointed out.

            _'How do I find Buffy?'_ Dawn interrupted him.

            _: You could ask the computer.:_ Data helpfully informed her.

            "Computer!  Where is Buffy?" Dawn immediately shouted.

            "Crewman listed as 'Buffy' is currently in assigned guest quarters 2041 on Deck 13, Port side." The Computer, ever the helpful instrument, monotonely answered.

            Immediately, Dawn rushed past the doctor/engineer couple and into the primary Sickbay facility, where she soon spotted the exit.  A couple of nurses and Security guards left in the Sickbay tried to get in the girl's way, but just because she no longer looked like Data did not mean that Dawn was not still an android.  She had no intention of hurting anyone, she just wanted to get to her sister, so when the guards and nurses got in her way, she went with her first impulse to just push them out of the way, not expecting the reaction she got, which was to have bodies suddenly flying away at her touch.  After the first three or four casualties, no one else tried to stop the girl as she quickly left Sickbay and headed as fast as her android legs could carry her to Deck 13, Port side.

            However, just before she was out of the medical area, one of the _Enterprise's_ "guests" spotted the girl tossing guards out of her way left and right.

            "Lil' bit?" Spike asked in confusion and slight fear.

            In Buffy's quarters, Deanna and Buffy were just finishing up talking about Buffy's mother's death, and how it had affected the girl.  Shortly after describing how she felt about all of it, Buffy began to break down and cry, while Deanna just held her and was generally just _there_ for her.  After a few minutes of this, Buffy gathered herself and sighed deeply.

            "Thank you for listening Deanna," Buffy said, "I, I really needed this."

            "It's perfectly all right Buffy.  In fact it's sort of in my job description to help you with this," Deanna comforted, her arms still around Buffy's shoulders.  "You're mother sounds like a wonderful and very special woman."

            Buffy smiled through her tears.  "She was.  The funny thing is though…ten minutes ago in Sickbay…I could barely remember having a mother.  Then there was that whole vision thing when you say that you contacted me telepathically, and I see a woman who I know now is my mother, another older man that for all I know could have been my father, and then another girl that looks about my age.  Then in the hall, when we did the telepathy thing again, five minutes later…I'm telling you everything that I remember about my mother.  What if…"

            Deanna suddenly caught on to what Buffy was getting at.  "What if using your telepathy is jogging your memory!?" Deanna finished.  Buffy nodded vigorously.

            "Do…do you want to try again?  Maybe this time you can try and initiate contact," Deanna suggested, releasing Buffy and simply sitting beside her.

            Buffy said nothing, but just nodded and wiped away some tears and sniffled a little, then sat straighter and stared deeply into Deanna's eyes.  After several minutes of doing nothing but staring hard into each other's eyes, Buffy finally gave up and just thought in general, _'Is something supposed to happen?'_

            Deanna's eyebrows raised up as she responded telepathically, _'I think "something" just did,'_ she pointed out.  Buffy's eyes widened in surprise as she heard, clear as a bell, the Counselor's words.  _'I heard you!'_ Buffy thought 'at' her.

            Deanna smiled and nodded, _'And I heard you,'_ the half-Betazoid answered.

            _'So…how did I do it?  I mean, I've been trying for like the last five minutes to do that link thing that we did the first time, but…  And then I just thought my words at you…and you heard them?'_

            _'That's generally how it works,'_ Deanna told her.  _'As for the initial link that you experienced, I think that was a combination of your telepathy being activated, and those first memories being unlocked by the telepathic contact.  Do you remember anything else?  Anything at all?'_

            _'No, not yet any—'_ Buffy stopped and slowly turned her head towards her door.

            "Buffy?  Is anything wrong?" Deanna asked aloud.

            _'Dawn…?'_ Buffy thought to the empath.

            _'Who's Dawn?'_ Deanna thought back.

            In response, Buffy got to her feet and slowly made her way to the door, which opened upon her approach.  "I'm not sure," Buffy answered the Counselor's question aloud.  She then stepped out into the hall and started down in the direction of the others' quarters, with Deanna right on her tail.

            "Buffy?  What's wrong?" Deanna asked when they passed Cordelia's quarters without stopping or showing any true sign of their direction.

            "I don't know.  It's…sort of a feeling.  Something…something's coming…" Buffy muttered as they trekked on.

            About seventy meters in front of Buffy and Deanna, and a deck above, Dawn was running as fast as she could, using Data's knowledge of the layout of the ship to get herself to her sister's quarters as quickly as she could, which considering the android legs she was using was an almost blinding speed.

            _: Perhaps if you exercised a small amount of patience, I am sure that we can guarantee you will see your sister soon: _Data tried to calm Dawn down.

            _'Stop trying to stop me Data!'_ Dawn yelled at him.  _'I can find my sister on my own.  And I do not want to just sit around being asked stupid, inane questions that _no one_ knows the answers to!  I have to find Buffy.  I have to.  Where can I get to the next deck?'_

            _: There is a Jeffery Tube access down at the end of the next corridor. : _Data helpfully informed the spirit possessing his body.

            Immediately Dawn made her way down the specified corridor when almost out of nowhere no less than a dozen guards with phasers, two with phaser rifles, blocked Dawn off from her destination, cornered her on two sides, and flanked her from the hallway she had just exited.  The distraught girl only stopped long enough that it could be called a pause to judge the security in front of her.  Then she continued on her path and barely acknowledged knocking the four of them into the walls with hardly a glance, continuing to the Jeffery tube.

            One of the remaining officers raised his phaser, set on heavy stun, to fire, but Dawn disappeared before he could even get a shot.  He sighed and lowered his weapon and tapped his commbadge to inform the Doctor of their progress, or rather lack of it.

            Buffy and Deanna were just walking down the hall when all of a sudden a squad of Security ran by them, with very grim faces.  Buffy frowned and asked the Counselor with her mind, _'What's their deal?'_

            _'I'm not sure.  Perhaps there is a situation with Spike?'_ Deanna asked innocently, a small grin on her face and in her tone.

            Buffy mimicked the sentiment, and then suddenly frowned when she felt that same pressure in her gut that had caused her to leave her quarters in the first place.  For some reason…it was very familiar to her.

            "Up ahead…whatever it is, it's up ahead," Buffy said aloud and started walking again.

            Deanna walked right behind Buffy, concern etched into her face at the young girl's behavior.  But more because she was concerned that Buffy was _right_ about her feeling than at her being sick or affected in her biology after coming through the Phenomenon in Engineering.

            They did not have far to go before they came to what they were looking for.  Up ahead was a sharp turn in the corridor, and suddenly as the two women watched, one of the Security that had rushed by them but minutes ago was flying through the air before hitting the hull with a loud thud and sliding down to the deck, unconscious.

            The same thought instantly shot through both Betazoid and Slayer's minds, _'What the hell was that?'_  They got their answer in the next instant when two more guards backed cautiously to help their fellow officer, holding their weapons at the ready.

            Then came Dawn.  Her head tracked immediately to Buffy, whose own eyes suddenly went wide at the girl that she had seen at the end of her vision earlier, as well as her sudden connection as to who this girl was.  Plus the sight of the thin girl in a Lt. Cmdr. Yellow collared Star Fleet uniform was rather striking in its own right.

            "Dawn!" Buffy shouted at the sight of the young girl in the military uniform.

            "Buffy!" Dawn shouted back, immense relief shooting throughout her entire being.

            Deanna too recognized Dawn from the vision she had shared with Buffy, and was more surprised at her presence than that Buffy knew who she was.  The two girls ran at each other and embraced in a bone-jarring hug and didn't let go of each other for at least a full minute.

            During that minute, the Security forces that had been chasing Dawn since she'd fled Sickbay quickly surrounded the two, weapons up and armed.  Deanna tried to get them to stand down, but she was still too distracted by Dawn's appearance to respond in time before the two broke up.

            "What are you doing here?" Buffy asked when she and Dawn released from their hug.

            "Looking for you," Dawn answered with a slight tremble in her voice.  "Buffy, what is going on?  The last thing that I remember is talking with Willow and Tara in their room at school."

            Buffy frowned.  "Who's Tara?  And…wait a sec, you know Willow?  Ofcourse you know Willow, she's my best friend and you're my sister.  Dawn, how did you get here?"

            Dawn frowned slightly but before she could answer, the Security Chief interrupted.

            "Excuse me," a stern looking woman with short cropped black hair barked at the two "girls".  "I'm _real_ sorry to break up whatever kind of reunion this is, but we have orders to detain this…girl, or whatever she is, that has taken control of Commander Data's body.  Now miss, I have to ask you to step aside so we can take her back to Sickbay."

            Buffy immediately did not like this woman.  Other than her tone, her words, and her general gruff attitude, there was just something that rubbed her the wrong way with Buffy.  Deanna could immediately sense a sudden and rapid change in Buffy's emotional state as the blonde came to the decision to confront the Security Chief.  The Counselor knew she had to get in there and stop anything before it had a chance to get started.

            "Buffy!" Deanna called over the shoulders of the Security officers.  The yellow-collared officers immediately made a path for the Betazed until she was beside the two young women.  Troi thought it wise to deal with what she knew she could handle first, she turned to the Security Chief.

            "Lieutenant, stand down!  That's an order!" Deanna ordered in her best ever 'Command' voice.  The Security Chief straightened at the Counselor's voice, which signaled all the other Security officers to do the same.  Deanna was finally able to worm her way through the tight crowd.

            "Buffy, it's going to be all right, just trust me," Deanna said to the confused young woman when Deanna got to the center of the group.  Buffy nodded her head and answered _'I do.'_  Deanna couldn't help smiling back at that.

            All ease of expression faded from the Betazoid's face as she turned back to the Security Chief.  "Now, what seems to be the trouble here?" the Counselor asked in her diplomatic voice.  Though it was obvious to anyone with eyes in the visual light spectrum that she was pissed at the Security officers.

            The Security Chief, still standing fully erect, answered back as any good Star Fleet officer would a superior.  "This…young woman, _Sir_, is a result of the power surge that Commander Data received in his quarters.  When he awoke in Sickbay, this creature took control of his body, changed it, and escaped the confines of Sickbay, and we've chased it here."

            "My sister is not a _thing_!" Buffy exclaimed in distaste.  Deanna held up her hand, and that and the half-alien woman's glare held her back.

            "Dawn?" the Counselor tentatively asked the android girl.  The girl jerked in surprise at the use of her name by a stranger, but when she saw the question in the woman's eyes, she slowly nodded her head to confirm the question, holding tighter to Buffy as well.

            "What happened to Commander Data?" Deanna asked, once she saw the girl was listening to her. 

            Dawn blinked, again, in surprise, but answered, her voice extremely timid as she was obviously very afraid.  "He-he's here.  He's not hurt.  And I can hear him, the same way that he heard me before…" Dawn then gestured downward, indicating the changed body.  Troi nodded in understanding.

            "I'm sorry if I did anything wrong, but…" Dawn started to speak, "…but, when I woke up, I was confused and I didn't know what was going on, I still don't know what is going on, and then I heard Buffy was on board, or at least nearby and all I knew was that I had to find her.  I had to get to my sister because…she would make it all better.  She's always protected me, and helped me, and saved me.  Always."

            Buffy, who was standing right next to Dawn, just smiled sweetly at the face she now remembered so vividly, close to tears with the words the Key had just spoken.  Buffy frowned suddenly.  '_Key…?_'

            In the next instant, flashes of memory, so many, so intense, Buffy was soon drowned in the memories of her former life, of her past, of her destiny…  And then everything went black.

            Deanna was no clue the wiser about what happened than any of the others present.  One second Buffy had been perfectly fine, looking lovingly up at her taller, but younger, sister and the next, her eyes rolled up into her head and she collapsed and began to have convulsive fits.  She would have fallen to the floor if the android girl Dawn hadn't been holding onto her and caught her.

            "Buffy?  Buffy!?  BUFFY!" Dawn became frantic once more.

            _:We must get her to Sickbay.  It is the only way to know what is happening to her.:_ Data advised.  Dawn nodded to the subconscious suggestion.  "Sickbay.  We have to get her to Sickbay," Dawn demanded to the kindly eyed Councilor.

            Deanna Troi nodded and glared at the Security forces to back off as she tapped her commbadge.  "Computer, three for Emergency Transport to Sickbay!"

            Just before they disappeared into the sparkle of lights, Deanna saw Dawn take Buffy's hand into her own and the tears leaking down the android's face to land on the Slayer's skin.  _'Energy creature or not, these two truly are sisters.  I only hope that they stay sisters for longer than these few minutes.'_ She thought to herself.

            It was another hour before Buffy awoke.  All the "guests" had been told of the incident and had instantly reported to Sickbay to check on their friend.  As well as meet yet another stranger that seemed to be a part of their group.

            "I'm sorry, _who_ are you?" Xander asked for the twelfth time.

            Dawn/Data rolled her eyes again.  Still in her youthful female form, though according to all of Geordi's scans and tests, she _was_ Data, just with a different appearance.  The problem came when they found no one, not even Dawn _or_ Data, knew how to reverse the process and change "Dawn" back into "Data" of if it even was possible.

            "I told you Xander," Dawn repeated for the eleventh time, her voice sounding extremely annoyed, "I'm Dawn.  Dawn Summers.  Buffy is my sister.  Unfortunately, other than everyone's names and everything that Data knows, that is all I can remember."

            "Xander, please, calm down.  Buffy's going to be fine.  Doctor Crusher made sure of that," Willow attempted to sooth her friend.  Xander began pacing again, what he'd been doing between the times he tried to interrogate Dawn.

            The Captain, having a rather large stake in the situation was in attendance as well, and continued from where Xander had interrupted.  "Now, please bear with me…Dawn is it?  I'm trying to understand what happened.  You are saying that when you regained consciousness, you found yourself _inside_ Data, and only when his Emotion chip was activated did you become fully aware of his body, or even him of you?"

            Dawn just nodded again.  Then she shrugged and backed it up with, "Well I'm really not too certain that Data _could_ have been aware of me with his Emotion chip off.  It seems, to me anyway, that most of his primary cognitive and personality factors revolve around it.  I'm not even sure what would happen if Geordi would deactivate the chip.  I might go back to whatever stasis I was in when Data activated…or I would remain in control and Data would go into that stasis and I would just no longer be aware of him."

            Picard, and most of the people there, sighed in frustration.  Dawn had been giving them the same answers over and over, just in varied formats.  And Geordi had already dismissed the idea of turning off the Emotion chip.  Like Dawn said, there was no guarantee on what would happen.

            Deanna, however, had a thoughtful look on her face, until finally she spoke what had been on her mind.  "Dawn…do you remember what was happening, or what happened just before you found yourself in Data's body?" the Counselor asked.

            Dawn tilted her head just so, the same way that Data did when he was "thinking long and hard" on a given problem.  And as with Data, she looked back with the answer after a few seconds.

            "I…I-I…I think so…  I'm…not really sure.  I…  I, I-I remember…space."

            "Space?" several of the group of strangers repeated.  Dawn nodded, her eyes glazed, lost in the memory.

            "Yeah…I-I'm pretty sure it was…space.  And then…"  Dawn trailed off as she struggled to put the vague memories into a feasible order.  "It's all right, take your time," Deanna supported.  After another minute, "And then…_something_, I have absolutely no idea _what_, it-it _caught_ me.  At first I…I think I was scared, panicked maybe.  But after a while, I…can't be too sure how long, I felt…better about it.  It, whatever it was, was kinda comforting.  Like a security blanket, protecting me from the cold of space.  And then, a long time later, like I said I have _no_ idea how long this was, another _thing_, exactly the same as the first one, showed up and I think…they were talking about me.  And they were excited, or happy about something.  And then…after that I blacked out and the next thing I know…I'm in Data."

            The Star Fleet crew shared several long glances between themselves, understanding more about the vague descriptions than even the one that had given them did.  The other strangers were completely baffled, and also thought that Dawn was a complete nutcase.

            "Do you remember anything before that?" Deanna prompted again.

            Dawn's eyes glazed over for another minute.  After unexpectedly long wait, Dawn finally just shrugged, an unhappy confused look on her features.  "Not really.  I mean, nothing really outstanding.  I know that I lived on Earth, in America, and in California.  Buffy is my sister, and our mother died recently, and the names of the others, who I think were Buffy's friends.  Except for Spike.  He was the only one that treated me with respect.  At least I think he was…"

            "I think that's enough for now, thank you for your cooperation Dawn," Deanna excused the confused young girl.  She turned to her fellow officers in the room and made an indication, which they all recognized, that she would like to see them outside, away from the group for the time being.

            All the Star Fleet officers, save two Security officers at the entrance, exited the lab and went into Doctor Crusher's office.  "What is it Counselor?" the Captain asked the nanosecond the doors had fully closed.

            Deanna turned to regard each of her friends.  Captain Picard was standing, resolute and a pillar of emotional strength and fatherly concern, as he felt towards the entire ship, but at the moment was directing a large piece of that directly at her.  Lt. Cmdr. Geordi La Forge had taken a seat in on of the Doctor's visitor chairs and was staring with concern at her with those bizarre blue optical implants.  She could also sense a great deal of concern over his friend, and a desire to understand what had happened to him.  And the Doctor Beverly Crusher, her closest friend, other than her own fiancée, for all these many years they had served together on board the _Enterprise_.  Beverly was only concerned with her patients' welfare and at the moment nothing more.  Unfortunately, Deanna was about to change all of that.

            "Dawn is Data," the Counselor blurted, "And Data, from what I am sensing, has always been Dawn.  Without putting too fine a point on it, they were made for each other.  Literally.  I don't understand it myself, but their personalities are so well meshed together that the only difference I could find between them was that one is of a fifteen year old human girl, and the other is that of a thirty year old android.  And Dawn, as near as I can focus on her, rather than Data, is telling the truth, the whole truth.  Data is mostly concerned about what happened, but he wasn't feeling any fear or great concern directly _about_ Dawn.  In fact his concern was mostly _for_ Dawn and her feelings over finding her sister."

            "Counselor, are you saying that Data now has…two personalities within him?" the Captain was trying to understand.

            Deanna shook her head.  "Not exactly.  Data is still "_Data_" but now there is also "Dawn".  Without understanding what she really is or came from, there's no way to say if she is a second personality, or something that was always meant to be apart of Data, but wasn't added until now.  Like…like Data's Emotion Chip.  He wasn't first activated with it, and lived most of his life without it.  Now, none of us can imagine Data without emotions, and I think this might be another part to it."

            "Wait a moment Counselor," the Doctor interrupted from her chair behind the office desk, "Are you telling us that this-this…"_Dawn_" is actually _supposed_ to take over Data's body?  That he's supposed to be transformed into a fifteen year old girl?"

            "That's exactly what I'm saying.  How else can you explain that Data's body actually _accepted_ the energy from the phenomenon, rather than let it overload his power matrix, or overtax his systems, the energy actually worked _with_ Data's systems, making them better, more efficient even.  And then there is the fact that Data was transformed at all.  To require a transformation like that requires a great deal of energy, and time to reconstruct Data's basic systems to handle the change.  Data was unconscious for less than a day, and the moment that he awoke, he transformed.  Geordi, can you give a rough estimate, that if Data _hadn't_ been pre-prepared for this kind of alteration of how long even an evolved energy being would need _to_ prepare him?"

            Geordi's eyes went wide as he considered the problem, going over every bit of information he could recall about Data's makeup, and had his answer almost immediately.  "Even for an evolved being, unless it was a Q, it would need…at least a week, to have every last diode converted with absolutely no fault.  And that's what my scans in there confirmed.  Data…er, Dawn is as fully functional an android as Data ever could be.  Except for that weird energy that power surge put in him, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him.  Except that he's a her."

            "I think this actually all stems from the same source," the Captain inputted into the train of thought.  Deanna found herself agreeing with what the Captain was thinking.

            "I agree Captain," she supported.  "If not this sector of space, then most definitely with our guests.  Once their memories return, I'm sure that we'll have all the answers we'll need."

            "Yes, I quite agree on that as well Counselor, however…" the Captain was stopped when a very loud and very terrified feminine scream tore through Sickbay.  All the Officers and the guests quickly raced out to the source, a terrified and struggling Buffy.

            Several Security officers were racing forward to hold her down on the Bio bed until the force fields could be put in place, but they were having an extremely difficult time of it.  Until Buffy decked one unconscious leaving only two, which was just one not enough.  Almost with ease, Buffy tossed the Security force off of her as she had Beverly when she'd woken up earlier, and jumped up into a ready position as she had before.  Except this time she didn't freeze when the officers came up with their phasers, this time she attacked.

            "Where is the bitch?!" Buffy screamed, rage echoing throughout her form.  "WHERE'S **GLORY?!**"

TBC…


	7. Chapter 6, Buffy's memory returns

_Chapter Six:_

            Nobody was quite sure what was going on with their previously calm and understanding guest, nor what had suddenly turned her into a dangerous and potentially lethal, with her strength, threat any more than they knew who Glory was.  They were all sure of one thing though, if anybody got near the angry Slayer, they could find themselves on the end of her wrath.

            The Security forces stationed in Sickbay formed a loose perimeter around the Bio-bed that Buffy remained by, the gaps often filled with the nervous medical staff, as well as the command crew and the other strangers.  (Known as Slayerettes from here on in.)

            After a few minutes tense stand off between Buffy and the rest of the room, the Counselor decided to see if she could step in ease the situation any.  After all, she'd been doing a good enough job of that so far today.

            "Buffy?  Please, try to calm down, nobody wants to hurt you!" Deanna called as she slowly stepped forward.

            Drawn by the movement, totally and nothing but the Slayer now, Buffy dropped into an attacking stance and shifted so she could strike at the threat invading her space.  Deanna flinched back before Buffy could attack or she took another step.  Dawn saw this and rolled her eyes before snorting and pushing her way through the crowd saying, "Oh enough of this!  Buffy!  _Buffy_!"

            Buffy didn't look, didn't think, only reacted.  Before Dawn was fully out of the crowd, a high spinning kick was aimed right at her head, but using the superior android reflexes she found herself with, Dawn easily blocked it.  And the follow-up right cross, the two left handed punches, and managed to stop her when Buffy kicked a second time and Dawn caught and held her leg.  Then she decided to snap Buffy out of her funk a little more directly than speaking, and leaned forward and lightly slapped her older sister on the cheek, like when trying to wake someone from sleep or unconsciousness.

            "Buffy?  Hello, McFly, anybody home?!" Dawn drawled, causing Xander to snicker, though even he had no answer as to why he did.

            It seemed to do the trick however as in the next moment, Buffy visibly shook her head and snapped her leg back out of Dawn's grasp.  Then her face lit up with a mix of relief and joy as she exclaimed, "Dawn!" and embraced the android.  The entire "fight" hadn't lasted five seconds.

            "Oh my god!  Dawn!  What happened?  Where are we?  Where's Glory?" Buffy's question became dark and angry when she asked the last question.

            Dawn, also having no clue as to who Glory is, or was, looked around sheepishly for a moment, still in Buffy's embrace, but now they were facing each other.  She just said the first thing that came to her mind that she knew would calm Buffy down.  "Uh, don't worry Buffy, it's all right.  We're safe here.  And there is no Glory here.  I'm sure of it.  And speaking of what happened…"

            "Are you sure Glory's not here?  If she isn't, then where is she?  And where are we?  We aren't in Sunnydale are we?  No, not even the Initiative looked _this_ hi-tech.  She might still be in Sunnydale!  Are you sure she isn't here?  She might still come after you, I mean us!  Maybe just me, but don't worry Dawn, I'm going to make sure she never gets you.  I swear it." Buffy interrupted.

            "Are you done?" Dawn asked.  Then before Buffy could even answer, "Don't worry Buffy.  I'm somehow sure that we don't have anything to worry about from _Glory_.  She won't be coming after anybody.  And especially not us, _here_."

            "How do you know that?"

            Again, looking around sheepishly, Dawn just went with her first instinctive answer.  "Because…Glory's dead.  That's why she won't be going after anybody."

            Buffy blinked in surprise, multiple times.  Finally she managed to force out, "How?  _Who_?  And again _how_?  I fight this hell bitch for months and don't even make her break a nail and just all of a sudden she's dead!  How?  I mean literally, _how_ could someone have killed her?"

            Looking like she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar, Dawn squeaked out, with a little prompting from Data, "You killed her."

            Again, Buffy with the rapid eye blinking of the surprised.  Then she finally let go of Dawn and stepped back with a stunned look on her face and could only mutter, "Oh."

            "And the other reason she can't come after us is that we're in the middle of space on a starship, approximately 420 light years from Sector 001, or Earth.  Let alone Sunnydale." Dawn added.  Again, that left Buffy blinking from shock.

            "Oh," the overwhelmed and confused Slayer repeated.

            _'Buffy?  She's telling the truth.  You are safe here, and…you are no longer on Earth,'_ Deanna empathically explained to the confused girl.

            Buffy suddenly started spinning around, the wild look in her eye again, but this time with more fear than anger.  "What?!  What the…?  Who-who said that, what?!!" she screamed.

            Dawn immediately understood, having seen Buffy and the Counselor together before and communicate almost as though with their thoughts.  "Buffy, it's all right!  It was probably just Counselor Troi, calm down!" Dawn said forcefully, grabbing her sister by the shoulders.

            Buffy blinked in confusion again in Dawn's arms.  "Who?" she asked with no idea.

            That startled everybody in the room.

            The Captain immediately dragged both the Councilor and the Doctor off to the side, as far away from the "confrontation" as possible and still be in the room.  "Doctor, explanations?" he said briskly.

            Beverly Crusher took a deep breath and let it out long and slowly as her mind worked overtime as she went over every detail of medical knowledge applying to memory loss.  After she let out the long sigh, she looked back up into her commanding officer's eyes and answered, "Well, obviously, the most basic explanation is that Buffy has indeed gotten her memories back, but at the same time, she's lost her memory of the past few hours, ever since she woke up earlier it would seem.  Such a case isn't as rare as it is just not commonplace, but it has been known to happen in cases of memory loss.  Another factor is trauma.  Maybe seeing this "Dawn", who they both claimed is her sister, might have triggered some automatic…reboot of her brain.  As for this behavior, well…considering how they all got here and the conditions I found them to be in, I expected much worse.  Obviously they've experienced some kind of trauma or something even worse just prior to coming here.  Apparently this "Glory" person was the source of it.  She might have been the one to throw them all into the vortex to begin with, or maybe they jumped in volunteering to escape her.  There's no way to know for certain just yet."

            The Counselor had been quiet up until now, speaking as soon as the Doctor had finished her hypothesis.  "I sense that the Doctor is right Captain.  In more ways than one.  Buffy…now that she has nearly fully regained her past memories, is now giving off the impression of a warrior.  A very good one at that, if her performance so far is anything to judge.  To the others, I sense she feels a great deal of comradery, except towards Spike.  And Angel.  To Angel, she feels…"  Deanna paused as she tried to analyze the Slayer's emotions.  Then her expression saddened a great deal as she finished, "…a lost love.  Somebody that she loved a great deal, that hurt her, and she can never go back to, no matter how much she may desire to."

            The Captain nodded, trying not to express any direct emotion himself on that last observation.  "Counselor, before Buffy awoke, you told me that when you and Buffy made telepathic contact with each other, it aroused her hidden memories to show themselves.  Do you think that perhaps if you did so again, with her permission this time, that you might be able to arouse her memories of the past few hours?"

            The half-Betazoid blinked, considering the request.  Then she slowly nodded.  "I think I might be able to Captain, but most of it would be up to her."

            The Captain nodded, as he always did, and ordered, "Make it so."

            As the three officers spoke, Buffy was just becoming aware of the other familiar faces in the room.  Her eyes and face lit up when it came to her close friends, Xander and Willow, one of extreme annoyance and at the same time fear at Spike, indifference at Cordelia, but when her eyes rested on the souled vampire next to the former "queen of Sunnydale High", a torrid flash of emotions crossed her face and her heart before being expressed and a whispered sigh, "Angel."

            At the sudden mention, that only a very few could hear let alone understand, the souled vampire started and tensed a great deal.  Buffy, however, quickly moved on past the rapid flash of intense emotions and returned to the current situation, which seemed to be dealing with these uniformed people, most if not all human if Buffy's gut was telling her anything.  She overlooked Cordelia as inconsequential and turned her primary attention to the three officers that were just returning from a side area where Buffy had noticed them speaking in hushed tones.

            Other than the single different color collar in the room, as well as the slightly more metal things on said collar, Buffy immediately identified who had to be the leader of this group, mostly from the way he walked and looked at her.  Buffy decided that since the only hostile reaction these people had given was against her own hostile actions, that they were willing to play nice and expected her to do the same.  And considering the others were here and none of them in the clothes she last remembered them all being in, (save Angel and Cordy), she really didn't see the need in pissing these people off.

            Yet, other than the Captain, her attention was also drawn towards the short brunette beside him with a blue collar and one less piece of metal on it.  Buffy couldn't explain it, but suddenly she was having a flood of emotions for this person.  Like…a trustworthy ally that she had misplaced in her memory…or maybe someone as good a friend as Willow.

            Buffy's face scrunched slightly in confusion as the three uniformed people made their way, cautiously she noted, towards her and Dawn through the gap between the Slayer and other people that had formed.  Her gaze remained focused on Deanna, as she tried to understand her raging emotions, until they stopped just in front of her and her eyes were drawn back to the leader she had identified.

            "Uh…Buffy?  Are you…" He started to ask.

            "Not a total psycho-maniac right now?" Buffy finished for him, adding in a bit of sheepish embarrassment for any sympathy she could get.  Suddenly she felt a swell of amusement that almost made her giggle.  She looked at the dark haired woman she felt drawn to and couldn't help feeling that the strange emotion came from her.

            Captain Picard smiled that well-known humoring smile of his and nodded in agreement with the statement, "Well, yes.  Though from your reaction towards us…am I to understand that you do not recall the previous few hours after you first woke up and were introduced to you and your friends' situation?"

            Buffy had been staring at Deanna until the Captain had finished his lengthy question, and at which point Buffy snapped her attention back to him and reviewed what he had just told her.  Buffy's face said it before any other part of her could.  "Huh?" she deadpanned.

            Deanna, and seemingly Dawn as well, could sense the rising panic welling within Buffy.  Dawn put her hands tighter around Buffy, hoping that Data's strength would be enough to hold her down if it became necessary again, while Deanna went with a slightly more direct approach.

            _'It's going to be all right Buffy,'_ Deanna spoke telepathically in the Slayer's mind once more, _'There's no reason to panic.  Everything is going to be all right.'_

            Buffy stared directly at the Counselor, now having absolutely no doubt in her mind that it was the woman she was staring at that was the source of the voice in her mind.  Buffy decided to play it the same way.

            _'All right!  ALL RIGHT!  It is **not all right, and DO NOT TELL ME! NOT!! TO!! PANIC!!!!**'_ Buffy psi-screamed so loud that for the tail end of her shout, even non-telepaths and empaths in range could easily hear her.  Including all of the crew in and around Sickbay for over three decks.

            Deanna, however, was the only one negatively affected by Buffy's "volume" and immediately winced her eyes shut in hopes of quelling the mental ringing.  Doctor Crusher was immediately by her side, but it proved needless as the second that Buffy stopped shouting, Deanna opened her eyes and shook off the worried attentions of her friend.

            Yet it was Buffy that needed the Doctor's attention as three seconds after she finished her "shout" and caught her breath from the unexpected strain, as though she had shouted with her lungs rather than thoughts, a piercing pain worse than any migraine could ever be, shot through Buffy's skull and a vertigo worse than she could ever possibly imagine knocked her off balance.  If it hadn't been for Dawn/Data, she would have collapsed to the floor right then.  Instead, she just grabbed her head and groaned painfully before coming limp in the android's arms.

            "Buffy!  Buffy!!" Dawn screeched in pure panic.

            "Put her on the bio-bed, NOW!" the Doctor ordered.  Dawn immediately complied without any added encouragement.

            It was a few more moments before Deanna collected herself enough to command, "No!  Leave her alone.  She's all right!  It was her memories.  _All_ of her memories, coming back in a rush.  Combined with the power that she just unleashed…it must have hurt like hell.  But she's all right."

            Stepping back, seeing that the Counselor was correct, everyone watched as Buffy moaned one more time, but this time as one would when waking up rather than in pain.  Her hand went to her head once more, but only sorely rubbed her eyes, before she managed to sit up and open her eyes and look around the room.

            Taking everything in at a glance, Buffy managed to slide herself into a sitting position with her legs dangling off the side of the bio-bed before moaning, "What happened?"

            "Your memories came back," Dawn answered her sister.  "At least that is what the Counselor said."

            Buffy blinked and then shook her head briefly before blinking rapidly several more times, her eyes moving rapidly back and forth.  Shaking her head one last time, Buffy rubbed her eyes again before getting to her feet and asking in a slightly clearer voice, "What happened?"

            Before Dawn was about to make some snide sisterly remark, Buffy added, "I mean _before_ I woke up screaming like a madwoman?  The last thing I remember…before that…was finding Dawn in the hallway with Security chasing her.  What happened in between?"

            "You collapsed in the hallway, and we brought you to Sickbay.  Again." Dawn answered in her sisterly tone anyway.

            Buffy smirked at her "younger" sister but refused to rise to the bait.  At least in front of strangers.  She then turned to Captain Picard and smiled sheepishly again.  "Uh, Captain Picard…I apologize about my behavior…but obviously I wasn't fully myself at the time…"

            "It's all right Buffy, so long as your feeling as much yourself from now on," the Captain interrupted, accepting her apology and forgiving at the same time.  "Now…do you remember anything more about your past, or what it was that brought you all here Buffy?"

            Suddenly Buffy's face and mood darkened a considerable amount as she flashed back on her memories prior to being on the Enterprise.  Glory, the battle on the tower, her sister being kidnapped by Ben, who she _thought_ was a trusted friend, the portal opening…jumping…

            Buffy's face fell from a dark cloud to utter confusion as she realized that she _should_ be dead…but instead was over 300 light years away from Earth…with her friends…and Angel and Cordy…and Dawn.  The Key.

            Suddenly it all sparked into place.  Buffy grabbed her sister's arm and held it as tight as all her Slayer Strength could muster, surprising everyone.

            "Hey!" Dawn shouted and almost easily tore her arm out of her sister's grip.

            "Shit," Buffy cursed as she backed away in shock from the android.

            Deanna frowned as she sensed the sudden panic and fear course through Buffy and was just as shocked as anyone when the next words out of Buffy's mouth were, "You aren't my sister!  No human or vampire could do that!  My sister was made out of my blood, pure human.  You're the _Key_!"

            The outburst left an uneasy silence in the room until Deanna grabbed the Captain's arm and pulled him in and whispered urgently in his ear.  Only Spike, Angel, and Buffy clearly heard what she said to him.  A second later, the Captain nodded and turned to Beverly.

            "I want this room cleared now!" Jean Luc Picard ordered after receiving an accepting nod from the CMO.  In a rush of movement, with only minor hesitation by the Security, the room was cleared save the visitors, the Captain, the Counselor, the Doctor, Dawn, and a single nurse who had remained by the Doctor's side the entire time.

            "What the hell do you mean I'm not your sister?!" Dawn shouted, completely ignoring the Captain and everything else going on around them.

            "I remember…the Security team said that some kind of energy had invaded and taken control of Data…an android.  My sister was made from my blood.  She was human.  It was a bunch of stupid Russian monks that made her out of some energy thing called the Key.  It was _why_ Glory was after us.  You aren't my sister, you're the Key!" Buffy answered back.

            This shocked Dawn into silence as she tried to focus back on as many memories as she could.  She remembered things about "Dawn"…and then she remembered things about other stuff, things that no _real_ human should ever be able to know or understand.  And what's worse…she could only remember the "Dawn" things only till the point where Dawn moved to Sunnydale with her mother and Sister after "spending the summer with her father".  None of the false memories the monks had given Buffy, her mother, the whole world.

            "You're right," Dawn said in a bit of shock, just as Deanna had stepped forward beside Buffy in hopes of calming her down.  "I…didn't realize.  I was just so panicked after having been alone for so long, and then I found myself inside Data…I didn't realize."  She looked up at Buffy, tears streaming down her face.  "I…I'm sorry, but…I don't know who else to be.  I've only ever _been_ Dawn.  And…I think I used to be a part of her…  The last thing I remember is being up on the tower when Doc cut me.  Then…nothing…for a while.  I remember you and the others being with me, and then things got real confusing and I was traveling through space for a long time, and then…_something_ caught me, and held me for an even longer time.  Then a bunch of different things started happening.  I can't explain it.  All I know is…I'm Dawn, and…you're my sister, Buffy."

            Buffy's heart broke at the sight of Dawn, even if it wasn't _really_ Dawn, in tears.  She almost ran to her and held her like when their parents used to fight all the time, but before she became the Slayer.  She restrained herself however and stayed by Deanna.

            She thought about what this Dawn…what the Key was telling them, and decided that they needed more answers before they could even decide what to do with her.  She turned to Deanna, and telepathically confirmed what she wanted to be done.  Deanna was hesitant, but was honest in telling Buffy how to go about it.

            Buffy turned sharply at the Doctor and the Captain.  "We need to know what the hell happened to us.  Now." She ordered.  Neither argued, and Dr. Crusher immediately setting about getting as many tests as were available for the Slayerettes and Dawn/Data.


End file.
